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A RECOILING 
VENGEANCE 

By FRANK BARRETT 

Author of “His Helpmate,” “The Great Hesper,” etc. 

■ 


A ' 


WITH 


ILLUSTRATIONS 





D. APPLETON & CO., NEW YORK 



APPLETONS’ 

TOWN AND COUNTRY LIBRARY. 

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D. APPLETON A CO., Publishers, 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street, New York 


A EECOILING VENGEANCE 




, *#& 



A 


RECOILING VENGEANCE 


BT 


FRANK BARRETT 

M 

AUTHOR OF “HIS HELPMATE,” “THE GREAT HESPER,” ETC. 


“ Revenge at first, though sweet, 

Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils.” 

Milton. 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 


■> ■> 
i y y 


NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
1888 


P^3 


Authorized Edition. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. p AGE 

HOW IT ALL BEGAN 1 

CHAPTER II. 

NURSE GERTRUDE 13 

CHAPTER III. 

MR. LYNN YEAMES MAKES HIS APPEARANCE 26 

CHAPTER IY. 

AN UNLUCKY BEGGAR 42 

CHAPTER y. 

DIAMOND CUTS DIAMOND 50 

CHAPTER VJ. 

TWO PHASES OF A GOOD GIRL’S CHARACTER ....... 58 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER YI I. page 

LYNN FALLS INTO A TRAP 74 

CHAPTER VIIJ. 

I FALL OUT OF A TRAP 89 

CHAPTER IX. 

A PELLET OF PAPER 98 

CHAPTER X. 

A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE 102 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE MORTIFICATION OF MRS. YEAMES 115 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE DINGLE COTTAGE 126 

CHAPTER XIII. 

AWDREY PERSEVERES 140 

CHAPTER XIV. 

I TELL A STORY WITH A tyORAL 151 

\ 

CHAPTER XV. 

MR. LYNN YEAMES PROVES HIMSELF BUT A SECOND-RATE 

DECEIVER 173 


CONTENTS. vii 


CHAPTER XYI. PAGE 

DR. AWDREY PERSEVERES . 189 

CHAPTER XVII. 

A SPOKE IN MR. YEAMES’s WHEEL 204 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

FIRST CHARGE AGAINST DR. AWDREY 212 

CHAPTER XIX. 

WHICH IS THE JUDAS ? 222 

/ 

CHAPTER XX. 

GETTING EViDENCE 235 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE INQUIRY 248 

CHAPTER XXII. 

BROUGHT TO BOOK 256 


















•4 


■ 1 1 • • 4IJ 


, ■ 

















LIST OF ILLU STB ATI ON S. 


PAGE 

“ A NICE FUSS THEY MADE ABOUT IT ” 5 

“NURSE GERTRUDE CAME DOWN TO DINNER WITHOUT THE 

BECOMING LITTLE CAP ” 20 

“ WE LEFT MRS. YEAMES AT HER COTTAGE 38 

\ 

“THERE IS A MAN WORTH TALKING ABOUT” . . 63 


“GRINDING AWAY WITH A PESTLE ANI) MORTAR AND A BOOK 


BEFORE HIM” 70 

“SOMEHOW OR OTHER HE PROPOSED TO HER THAT 

NIGHT” 76 

“ THAT WILL SHALL BE CONTESTED ” 124 

‘ ‘ MISS DALRYMPLE POINTED OUT WHERE THERE SURELY 

WOULD BE PRIMROSES IN THE SPRING” 135 

“ ‘ I WANT TO SEE MR. FLEXMORE’S WILL ’ ” 141 


X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . 

PAGE 

***! can’t wait any longer’” 154 

“A VERY PRETTY GROUP THEY MADE” 157 

“LYNN QUITTED THE ROOM TO ‘GO AND HAVE IT OUT WITH 

AWDREY’” 187 

“I CLIMBED OVER THE FENCE THAT SEPARATED THEM. 

FROM THE DINGLE PADDOCK” 205 

“I SAW THEM GOING ALONG THE HIGH STREET TOGETHER” 224 

“I CAUGHT HOLD OF ITER HAND AND KISSED IT ” . . . . 229 

“‘I HAVE BROUGHT MRS. BATES TO SEE YOU,’ SAID SHE ” . 243 

‘“we’re a-goin’ queen’s evidence’ ” 276 

% 

“it is a treat to see him with his boys” 279 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


CHAPTER I. 

HOW IT ALL BEGAN. 



My name is Keene, 
Anthony Keene. I am 
a lawyer ; sixty-four is 
my age. You may see 
what kind of man I am 
by my portrait; not over 
pleasant with any one. 

George Flexmore and 
I were friends. He was 
my first client when I set up in Coneyford, a small town 
just large enough at that time, as I believed, to keep 
a lawyer of its own ; there are a couple of us now, and 


2 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


we have as much to do as we need. Flexmore had 
just then come into a fortune of £30,000, and he did 
not know what to do with it. I prevented him from 
losing it, as he certainly would have done without 
proper direction, for he was an easy-going man, of a 
credulous disposition, such as your needy adventurer 
and shifty speculator love to take in hand. For every 
man that has money there are ninety-nine who are 
anxious to spend it for him. 

“If any one asks you for money, Flexmore,” said 
I, “ don't refuse him : send him to me.” And he did 
so, with this result — he never lost a penny by these 
good-natured friends. 

He had a great respect for me — more than I 
deserved doubtless. He seemed to think that what- 
ever I did must be right, and I believe it was the 
sheer force of example that kept him out of matri- 
mony so long. Because I did not care to take a wife, 
he thought best to keep single. But the conditions 
were different. I am not an easy-going man, and 
marriage would have been purgatory for me or my 
wife, and the result must have been equally bad 
for both of us in either case. Besides, a lawyer has 
so much to occupy his thoughts in the interest of his 


HOW IT ALL BEGAN. 


3 


clients that he has not an hour in the day to devote 
to anything else. But Flexmore had nothing to do 
from morning to night that he might not very well 
set aside to attend to the wants of somebody else ; 
and as to worries — he hadn’t enough to keep him 
from getting fat. 

Now, a man ought to have solicitude for some- 
thing beyond himself, if it’s only to give reason- 
able activity to his faculties ; and Flexmore felt 
this also. He saw that he ought to have some 
other object in life than to eat and sleep and kill 
time — that his life was incomplete, in fact. But 
he still made pretence of being content with 
a bachelor’s existence. 

One day I caught him singing his old song, When 
a mans single he lives at his ease, but in such a 
lugubrious strain that it would have made me laugh 
if it had not irritated me. 

“That’s humbug, Flexmore,” said I, “and you 
know it.” 

“ What,” said he, “ does not a single man live at 
his ease?” 

“Not when he has only himself to think of. A 
man’s happiness consists in making other people 


4 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


happy — unless he’s a lawyer. You’re not a lawyer, 
and you ought to be making some one else happy. 
You’d be more at your ease if you had some one 
else to think about, and somebody else to think 
about you.” 

“ Do you mean that I ought to marry, Tony ? ” 
he asked, blushing like a girl. 

“ That is exactly what I do mean, George.” 

“ But I’m fifty. I’m too old to think about marriage 
now.” 

“ A man’s too old to think about marriage when 
nobody will marry him, not before. There’s little 
Miss Vaughan, who has been waiting to be asked 
these three years; there are dozens of girls to be 
chosen from if ” 

“Do you think she would have me — that Miss 
Vaughan?” he interrupted eagerly. 

“ Well, the best way of deciding that point is to 
go and ask her this afternoon,” said I. 

The result of this advice was that Flex- 
more married Miss Vaughan just six weeks 
after. 

She was much younger than he, as a wife should 
be. A happier couple I never saw. He lived to 


HOW IT ALL BEGAN 


5 


please her, and she to please him — that was the 
chief object of their lives. 

A year after their marriage they had a child, and 



a nice fuss they made about it. I can’t abide babies, 
though they never could believe this, and were con- 
tinually plaguing me “ to kiss the little dear.” The 


6 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


child did not seem to like it, and I know I hated 
it ; but a lawyer, to please his clients, has to put up 
with a good many disagreeable duties. However, 
this mutual repugnance faded away, and we came to 
like each other in the course of time. 

She grew up a pleasant little child, shy and timid, 
with a clinging affection for lovable persons and 
things. I never saw anything like the passionate 
attachment that existed between her and her sweet- 
tempered mother. It inspired me with a melan- 
choly foreboding, for this strenuous love, I have 
noticed, too often springs from an inner con- 
sciousness (presentiment, if you will) of coming 
separation. 

Poor Mrs. Flexmore had never been a robust person, 
and — well, to cut short a story that is too painful 
to dwell upon, she died when little Laure was eleven 
years old. 

Flexmore was then sixty-two, but he was not too 
old to suffer. The loss unmanned him completely. 
He took on like a woman and he would have 
been less a man hf he had not, perhaps. 

“ My poor old friend,” said I, “ it would have been 
better to let you live on a bachelor.” 


HOW IT ALL BEGAN . 


7 


“No, no,” he replied. “After such happiness an 
eternity of suffering would find me still a gainer.” 

“You have your child — your little Laure,” said 
I, and then to turn his thoughts from the past, I 
talked about the future, and what he should do for 
the child’s welfare. 

Indeed the child’s grief gave me almost as much- 
concern as the father’s. It was not a passionate out- 
burst, that spends itself like a summer shower and 
gives place to peace and smiles, hut a continued, 
fruitless yearning for that loved one to come back 
who was gone for ever. 

“ You must have a woman here to comfort her,” 
I said to Flexmore. “ You’re no good.” 

He agreed to this, and sent for his deceased 
brother’s widow, as being his nearest female relative, 
and she came readily enough, a woman of fifty, hard 
as nails, and stringy as an old crow. 

Of course she never had “ approved ” (that was 

her word) of her brother’s marriage, so she had little 

sympathy with his loss and no pati nee with his grief. 

She looked upon little Laure ’s distress as unnatural 

in a child (unusual it certainly was), and her morbid 

condition as the result of defective education; and 
2 


8 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


she set about correcting all this by forcing the little 
thing to read some instructive and moral books which 
no conceivable creature could find interest or pleasure 
in. 

Laure had no appetite even when the kind old cook 
had a free hand and tempted her with pleasant 
dishes. When the cook’s hand was no longer free — 
about half-an-hour after Mrs. Yeames had taken her 
things off — the child ate nothing. 

“But you must eat; you cannot gain strength if 
you do not,” said Mrs. Yeames severely. “ It’s very 
wrong for little girls to reject good food,” and when 
Laure turned away to cry she was told that she 
must not cry, that she couldn’t expect to be happy 
if she gave way like that, and that all good little 
girls did as they were bid, and didn’t cry when they 
were told to look pleasant and nice. 

After she had been there three days Dr. Awdrey 
had to be sent for. Laure was feverish and couldn’t 
“ hold herself up properly.” Dr. Awdrey ordered her 
to be put to bed at once, gave directions respecting 
treatment, and sent physic to be administered every 
two hours. 

Mrs. Yeames had studied medicine from a shilling 


HOW IT ALL BEGAN. 


9 


handbook that she carried with her as if it were 
an amulet ; she diluted the physic and administered 
doses when she thought fit. 

Little Laure was very much worse when the doctor 
called the next day ; and it was not long before he 
discovered the reason. 

He came down into the library, where I was sitting 
with Flexmore. 

“Your child is in a very dangerous condition,” 
he said firmly. 

“ Heaven have mercy upon me ! ” exclaimed 
my old friend, clasping his hands. “ What is to be 
done ? ” 

“ She must have a proper nurse, to begin with,” 
said Dr. Awdrey. 

“ A proper nurse ? there is my sister-in-law.” 

“ Dr. Awdrey said ‘ a proper nurse/ ” said I, for 
I hated Mrs. Yeames already. 

“ Do you know of one, doctor ? ” asked Flexmore. 

“Yes; I can get you a professional nurse — one 
whom I can rely on implicitly, and who can do more 
than all my physic for the poor child. She is in 
the Hospital for Little Children at London, and I 
believe she would come at once if I asked her.” 


10 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ Then, for mercy’s sake, telegraph to her at once.” 

When the doctor was gone, Flexmore, in some 
embarrassment, turned to me. 

“It will not work, Tony,” said he despondently. 
“ The nurse will never be able to put up with that 
old— old ” 

“Cat,” said I, supplying the word he had not the 
courage to articulate. “Go on.” 

“ Every one of the servants has given notice already. 
They can’t stand her.” 

“ Can you stand her ? ” I asked. 

He looked at me as if hesitating before the heresy 
of disbelieving in the virtues of a woman whose 
every action bespoke conscious rectitude, and then 
summoning up his fortitude he said — “ I am afraid 
I cannot long.” 

“ Of course you can’t,” said I ; “ she’s turned the 
whole place topsy-turvy in putting things in order, 
and left not a bit of comfort anywhere.” 

“ Yes, yes ; all the things that my darling loved 
she has packed away — the little trifles with which 
she made these rooms so bright and pleasant. I 
can’t bear to see the place altered ; and those trifles 
Tony, I miss them — I miss them” 


BOW IT ALL BEGAN. 


11 


“We’ll have ’em all back again in twenty-four 
hours.” 

“But how are we to get rid of her and all her 
boxes and her library and things ? I believe she 
has ordered a lot of furniture to be sent on.” 

“ Yes ; and I warrant she’s settled what she’ll 
wear when she leads you to the altar.” 

“Never, Tony — I’ll never marry again. What! 
do you think she meditates such a thing?” 

“She isn’t a widow if she doesn’t.” 

“ Good gracious, what have I done ? I asked her 
to come and live here How can I get rid of 
her?” 

“Don’t bother yourself about that, George. You 
leave her to me. Give me full authority to act in 
your behalf and stick to my directions.” 

He gave me his word most impressively that he 
would. 

“ And will you have it out with her before long ? ” 
he asked anxiously. 

“ Now, directly,” said I, rising. “ This is just the 
sort of job I like.” 

And I went into the sitting-room and sent at once 
for Mrs. Yeames. Then we had it out. She was a 


12 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


tough one to deal with, but not nearly so tough as I 
am. I tried to be polite, but I fear I insulted her. 
She certainly said I did, and went into the library 
to know if her brother-in-law would tolerate such a 
want of respect on the part of a mere attorney; 
and the question being put directly to Flexmore, 
whether she or I were to leave that house at once and 
for ever, he replied that he felt convinced, taking all 
things into consideration, that he could better afford 
to lose her than me. 

After that there was nothing for the indignant 
widow to do but to pack up and pack off — which she 
did, happily, before her fury gave place to more 
prudential considerations. 


CHAPTER II. 


NURSE GERTRUDE. 

I dropped in on old 
Flexmore the next day to 
see if I might he wanted 
(for it appeared to me not 
unlikely that Mrs. Yeames 
might return when she got 
better of her vile temper), 
found my old friend busy 
restoring to their wonted places 
the pictures and bric-d-brac so dear to him as 
evidence of his poor wife's taste and fancy. 

“ It's all right, then ? ” said I. 

“ Yes ; the place begins to look itself again. Every 
little thing, you know, Tony, she bought with the 



14 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


thou’ght that it might please me and make our home 
sweeter.” “She” was the good little wife he had 
lost. 

“ Yes ; she had good taste and a good heart,” said I. 
“And the old woman — have you heard anything 
of her?” 

“She wrote saying that, in the interest of her 
dear niece Laure, she would be happy to see me and, 
if possible, arrange some modus vivendi. I thought 
I would see you before replying.” 

“Quite right. Give me her letter; I’ll answer it 
for you. I can say you have put the matter in my 
hands — see ? I’ll undertake to say she won’t come 
back.” 

He thanked me with tearful gratitude, and asked 
me to stay to lunch. 

There was such a savoury smell of cooking in the 
house as I had not inhaled since the coming of 

O 

Mrs. Yeames, and I accepted without hesitation — the 
more readily as I wished to see Nurse Gertrude, 
who, Flexmore told me, had arrived that morning 
and would in all probability take lunch with us. 

I expected to see a comely, motherly, middle-aged 
woman, and was taken altogether by surprise when 


NURSE GERTRUDE. 


15 


Nurse Gertrude presented herself in the person of a 
slight young woman of twenty-two or thereabouts. 

Of course I am no judge of female beauty, hut I 
don’t think Nurse Gertrude at that time could be 
considered handsome, or even very pretty. If I have 
any predilection, it is for large women with round, 
full figures ; and I think I rather like a saucy eye 
and a nice little turned-up nose. 

Now Nurse Gertrude, though by no means short, 
was, as I have said, slight and thin. She had a very 
delicate fair complexion and pretty dark hair, to be 
sure; but her nose was long and her eyes were by 
no means saucy, but calm and deep and thoughtful. 
Her expression was cheerful, and she had a pretty 
trick of blushing, but in repose her face was full of 
intelligence and solicitude. Her teeth w T ere not regular, 
but there was the sweetest play in her lips, that 
harmonized with her voice and gentle laugh. One 
could not look at her without being impressed with 
the belief that she was essentially a pure and honest 
girl, with a very earnest purpose, an amiable 
disposition, and a clear-seeing, right-feeling mind. 
Her eyes — they w r ere dark gray — were so true and 
frank and loyal that one was attracted towards her 


16 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


as to a friend whose fidelity and love could never be 
doubted. 

Let me stop while I can, if I say more I shall 
finish by declaring that she was downright beautiful 
— an assertion which, though I would not contradict 
it now, I was far from venturing then. 

One thing however did strike me : and this was 
that in some peculiarity — I know not what — she bore 
a resemblance to Mrs. Flexmore as I had known her 
in her younger days. And this seemed also to have 
struck Flexmore, for more than once I saw him, 
forgetful of the table, looking at her with the 
tenderest interest on his poor old woe-begone face. 

“ Oh, I see how this will end,” said I to myself. 
“He’ll marry that girl if she’ll have him.” 

And that was the opinion of a good many other 
people before long. 

Mrs. Yeames, like an old buzzard that has missed 
its prey, hovered about the neighbourhood, watching 
the quarry with the jealous intention of preventing 
any other creature of her own species clawing up 
what she had failed to secure. She had heard that 
Flexmore was worth thirty thousand pounds! 
A nice picking for somebody, and poor old 


NURSE GERTRUDE. 


17 


Flexmore was no longer a hale and hearty- 
man. 

She took a cottage at the other end of the town, 
and joined a clique of charitable ladies, who could 
make a shirt for the heathen or pick to pieces 
the reputation of a fellow-Christian with equal 
ability. 

It is pretty certain they did not leave the charac- 
ter of Nurse Gertrude alone. 

Meanwhile Nurse Gertrude fulfilled her duties 
with the calm self-possession of one conscientiously 
doing what she feels to be right ; and I believe that, 
if the question ever entered her consideration, she 
did not care two straws what I or any one else 
thought about her. What she had come there to 
do, she did — and as if by magic. With Dr. Awdrey’s 
help she got the fever under in a week, and after 
that she brought a smile back to the poor child’s 
wasted face, which was of still greater importance; 
for when one can smile, one can eat and enjoy 
food. She gave little Laure something to love, and 
nourished her heart with kindness. That was what 
she needed : that was what she got. She had been 
craving for love since her mother was taken away 


18 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


and must have died without it, as surely as a plant 
must die without sunlight. 

But how was she to be weaned of this love-food, 
in order that Nurse Gertrude might in time return to 
her hospital ? Every day her appetite grew by what it 
fed on. All the clinging affection she had borne 
to her mother she now exhibited towards Nurse 
Gertrude. The child had recognized the likeness 
that had struck me : mother and nurse, unlike in 
some respects, were still of the same type of woman — 
and an excellent type too. After a time it be- 
came obvious that Laure was not to be weaned, 
and that to take away Nurse Gertrude would inflict 
the same terrible suffering the child had endured 
in losing her mother. Thereupon there were con- 
sultations between Flexmore, Dr. Awdrey, and me. 

“It is obvious that Nurse Gertrude is very 
strongly attached to your child,” said Dr. Awdrey. 

“ She is not unhappy here ; she looks better than 
when she came,” said Flexmore. 

“Oh, undoubtedly she is better,” Dr. Awdrey 
agreed; “the confinement of the hospital and the 
air of London were telling upon her — in fact, I must 
admit that in recommending her I was influenced 


NURSE GERTRUDE. 


19 


by the consideration that the change would he to 
her advantage as well as your daughter’s.” 

“ If she would only consent to stay here as a com- 
panion to dear Laure — in any capacity, on any terms ! ” 
said Flexmore. “ Do you think she would ? ” 

“ Go and ask her,” said I. 

She was asked; but Dr. Awdrey was the nego- 
tiator, for Flexmore had not the courage of a mouse. 
And Nurse Gertrude acquiesced, setting aside all 
other considerations for the sake of the child whose 
love had won her heart. So Dr. Awdrey put it; 
for my own part, I could not see what sacrifice she 
had made in exchanging a close hospital ward for 
a pleasant and airy house, and an ill-paid slavery 
for a very remunerative position where she was free 
to do just as she liked. (Dr. Awdrey, in whose hands 
the whole affair was placed, had stuck Flexmore 
for a thumping big salary.) No; I looked upon it 
that this young lady, together with other very good 
qualities, had a very clear perception of her duty 
to herself, and that she foresaw as plainly as I did that 
sooner or later she would become Mrs. Flexmore. 

However to stick to the facts of the case : that 
day Nurse Gertrude came down to dinner without 


20 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


the becoming little cap which had previously dis- 
tinguished her as an official nurse ; and if we had 



“NURSE GERTRUDE CAME DOWN TO DINNER Wl’IHOUT THE 
BECOMING LITTLE CAP.” 


come to think her pretty in her cap, we were bound 
to admit that she looked still nicer without it — her 



NURSE GERTRUDE. 


21 


pretty hair drawn neatly up and coiled plainly on 
her head. 

Gracious powers ! how the women folk in our 
little town cackled when the news spread that this 
person was henceforth to be a sort of housekeeper 
and companion in Mr. Flexmore’s house, and that the 
servants were no longer to call her Nurse Gertrude, 
but Miss Dalrymple, if yeu please. Though why they 
should be astonished was a mystery, considering 
that according to their own statement they had fore- 
seen this, and “ said so all along.” Who was this 
Miss Dalrymple? Nobody knew. Why had she 
gone into a hospital as nurse ? Ah ! a good many 
young women go into hospitals as a sort of refuge, 
they generally have a history — something to conceal, 
and, too often, something to expiate by what they 
consider work of charity, though, as for that, they 
are paid quite as well as ordinary servants, so there’s 
not much sacrifice on their part. It is well known 
that many go in with the hope of entrapping some 
young doctor or medical student, while others, like 
this Miss Dalrymple, contrive to work their way into 
well-to-do families and play on the sense of gratitude 
or fancy of some old inbecile, such as poor dear Mr 


22 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


Flexmove. These were the views of those miserable 
women who refer to the members of their little 
coterie as “very superiah ladies — very superiah ! ” 
They questioned Dr. Awdrey about Miss Dal- 
rymple — about her history, her antecedents, her 
family, &c. 

“ All I know about Miss Dalrymple,” he said, in 
reply, “ is that she has the finest and sweetest char- 
acter I have ever studied.” 

Poor Doctor Awdrey ! we thought, she has thrown 
her spell over him at some time ; he might have 
married her if he had only had the sense to let her 
stop in the hospital ; but there was little chance for 
him now, with old Mr. Flexmore absolutely in her 
power. With a weak man of that kind, she could 
easily obtain an offer of marriage, and at any time 
she could reckon upon Laure’s tears supporting her 
claim for a more definite and satisfactory position. 

She was incontrovertibly spoiling that child, Mrs. 
Yeames declared, quite spoiling her with indulgence ; 
dressing her like a little popinjay, though she was 
still in mourning; whoever heard of a child of that 
age being allowed to run wild and do whatever she 
would, spoiling tier things and behaving like a tomboy 


NURSE GERTRUDE. 


23 


more than anything else. A nice self-willed, perverse, 
detestable girl she would grow up under such treat- 
ment; but there, of course Nurse Gertrude (they 
wouldn’t call her Miss Dalrymple) had only one 
object, and that was to make herself indispensable, 
in the opinion of poor dear, dear George ! Ah, dear 
George was much to be pitied. 

The worst of it was that “ dear George ” bore his 
affliction very patiently, and seemed to like it. 

Miss Dairy mple’s position was not altogether an 
enviable one. She must have known of the ill-feeling 
against her, must have divined the cruel things that 
were said about her, though she showed no sign 
of being hurt under the snubs administered freely 
to her by visitors, who called ostensibly to see how 
dear little Laure was progressing. With her calm, 
deliberative disposition she may have foreseen all 
the consequences of taking the position in Flex- 
more’s house which she now held. She did nothing 
to controvert the opinion people chose to entertain 
regarding her ; nothing to make them know that she 
was better than they chose to think. It was only 
by accident that the truth came out. 

We have a flower show in our town once a year. 

3 


24 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


The first day is the best of course, and, the prices 
excluding the poorer kind of people, only the upper 
sort are there. There was a rumour that titled visi- 
tors were staying with the Caselys, and that probably 
the } 7 would visit the show in the afternoon ; where- 
fore you may be sure that Mrs. Yeames and her 
“ superiah ” set were all there in full feather. 

About three o’clock I saw Miss Dalrymple come in 
with Laure ; she never missed any occasion of giving 
pleasure to the child, or of taking it herself, for that 
matter. She was plainly dressed ; but, to my mind, 
there was no more elegant young lady there. Mrs. 
Yeames with three of her finest friends stopped them, 
and with the most distant patronizing inclination 
of their heads to Miss Dalrymple bent down to kiss 
Laure and ask after her poor dear papa. Then Mrs. 
Yeames, taking the child’s hand, led her to a bank 
of cut flowers, asking her whether she could spell 
the labels attached, and whether she knew what was 
a papaver somniferum. 

In the midst of this instructive display of her own 
acquirements, there was a flutter amongst the visitors, 
and word was whispered that Mrs. Casely had arrived 
and had brought Lord Dunover with her. And there, 


NURSE GERTRUDE. 


25 


sure enough, was Mrs. Casely with a tall, white- 
haired, aristocratic old gentleman, coming right down 
upon the little party. There was not time to get 
away from little Laure and that horrid Nurse 
Gertrude, when Mrs. Casely met them and intro- 
duced his lordship. Dunover bowed stiffly, but 
suddenly catching sight of Miss Dalrymple his face 
became illumined with a smile of heartfelt pleasure, 
and exclaiming, “ What, Gertie, my dear, you here ! ” 
he took her by both hands and kissed her pretty 
lips. Then turning to Mrs. Casely he said — 

“ Mrs. Casely, let me introduce you to my niece — 
a little democrat who almost shakes my class preju- 
dice, for she prefers independence as a hospital nurse 
to sharing the fallen fortunes of her family.” 

Then it was known that Miss Dalrymple was 
actually the niece of an earl. And she and Laure 
spent a week at Casely Manor, where Mrs. Yeames 
and her “ superiah ” set had never been allowed to 
stay longer than half an hour. 


sLia 


CHAPTER III. 


MR. LYNN YE AMES MAKES HIS APPEARANCE. 



FTER this I said to 
Flexmore — 

“Why on earth don’t 
you marry Miss Dai- 
ry in pie ? ” 

“ Do you think she 
would have me ? ” he 
asked, with a composure 
that showed that the idea 
was not unconsidered. 

“You can but ask her,” 
I replied. “ There’s no- 
thing like asking when one is in doubt.” 

“ I believe you think that any woman is to be had 


MR. LYNN YEAMES. 


27 


for the asking. But if I were sure of being accepted, 
I would not make the offer/’ 

“Why?” 

“ Because she is worthy of a better man than I 
am for one thing.” 

“ Th at she can best decid e. Wh at’s your next reason ? ” 

“ That I have no wish to marry.” 

“ That isn’t much of a reason. You have to think of 
what is best for your daughter and Miss Dairy mple. 
Your little one ought to have a mother — some one 
from whom she will be inseparable when you are 
gone; and there’s not a soul in the world better 
fitted to take the place of a mother than that girl.” 

“ I know it — I know it,” said Flexmore ; “ I have 
thought of that.” 

“ And then Miss Dalrymple ought to have the 
opportunity offered her of making her position here 
less anomalous than it is.” 

“I have a better plan for her welfare than that, 
Tony,” he said quietly. 

“ Then let me know it, George ; for we must do 
something to stop the mouths of these cackling 
scandal-mongers and tittle-tattling widows and 
spinsters,” said I. 


28 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ She must marry Awdrey : that is the husband 
for that sweet girl,” said he. 

“ Dr. Awdrey ! ” I exclaimed in astonishment, for 
I had never thought of him as a marrying man. 

“Yes. He loves her — I know he does. Who could 
see her and know her, and not love her ? And he 
is an excellent fellow. I wish he were a little lighter 
and better-looking ; but I couldn’t wish him to have 
a better heart, or a more lovable disposition. He’s a 
fine man, Tony.” 

“Yes, he is a fine man,” I assented readily, 
“ morally.” 

“He’s not ill-looking; a little serious perhaps.” 

“That’s not astonishing. No one has so much 
reason to be serious as a fool.” 

“You do not mean to tell me that Dr. Awdrey is 
a fool,” said my old friend indignantly. 

“ A fool in a worldly sense he is. In his profession, I 
grant, he may be as wise as you like. He can see into 
men’s stomachs, but he can’t see into their minds. 
If you can’t see through the mask with which most 
men conceal their true nature, you are bound to be 
duped. Awdrey is so honest that he cannot believe in 
knavery ; and a man with his confiding disposition 


MR. LYNN YEAMES. 


29 


is the born prey for tricksters. He was cheated into 
buying a practice that was worth nothing, and he 
goes a round of thirty miles a day to doctor patients 
who never pay their fees. Hang me, I’d physic 
'em if they tried to serve me in that fashion. How- 
ever a woman loves her husband none the less for 
his being serious; and as for looks, in my opinion 
there’s not a man in Coneyford to compare with 
him ; he’s six foot in his stockings, and every inch 
of him a man. That’s good enough.” 

“Then you agree with me that he would be a 
suitable husband for Miss Dalrymple?” 

“Yes, but he won’t marry her, for all that. It’s 
as much as ever he can keep his head above water 
now, and fool as he is — in worldly matters — he 
wouldn’t tie a millstone round his neck.” 

“ Miss Dalrymple is not a millstone,” said poof old 
Flexmore warmly. 

“I know that. She’s a good woman, and would 
work herself ill to help her husband, or worry herself 
ill if she couldn’t. That is what Awdrey would not 
have his wife do, and the only way to prevent it 
is to keep single. And single he’ll keep.” 

No, Keene, no ; he must marry Gertrude. I have 


30 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


thought it all out. My little Laure must have a 
father as well as a mother when I am gone — and I 
don’t think that is long hence, Tony. I shall not see 
sixty-four.” 

I tried to combat this notion, though I myself 
was far from regarding it as improbable ; and then to 
turn the conversation, I said — 

“ Well, to go back to what you have been thinking 
out — what’s your idea ? ” 

“I wish to put Awdrey in a position to marry 
Miss Dairy mple. I know he is poor, but I am 
rich.” 

“ You’ll never get Awdrey to take an independence 
from you.” 

“Not while I live — but in time to come when I 
am gone ? This is my idea, Tony. I would leave 
him every penny I have on the condition that he 
adopts Laure as his daughter.” 

“ I see your notion. There will then be a second 
inducement for him to make Miss Dalrymple his 
wife in the fact that the child is inseparable from 
her.” 

“That’s it. Tony. Now tell me. What is your 
opinion on the subject?” 


MR. LYNN YEAMES. 


31 


“ Well, I think the idea is a capital good one, so 
good that I wish I had thought of it myself. I might 
if there had not been a little too much romance in 
it for my mind to take readily to. Still, it is a good 
idea.” 

“ Very well, then ; draw up a will in accordance with 
it. Settle everything upon Awdrey, subject to deduc- 
tion for a few smaller legacies that I will write in.” 

“ I’ll sleep on it. We won’t hurry. You’re good for 
some time to come.” 

“ Let me have the draft of it in a week at the out- 
side, Tony,” he said eagerly. 

I promised to do this, and went home, turning 
the matter over in my mind. I considered from time 
to time during the week, and finding no material 
objection to the scheme I put Flexmore’s notion into 
legal form with certain modifications, and then took 
a rough draft for his inspection. 

“Is your master at home?” I asked the girl who 
opened the door. 

“Yes, sir; he’s in the library with Mrs. Yeames 
and Mr. Yeames.” 

“ Mr. Yeames ? what Mr. Yeames ? ” I asked the 
little maid sharply. 


32 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“Mr. Lynn Yeames is his name, I think, sir; a 
young gentleman.” 

“Mrs. Yeames’s son. I know him,” said I; and 
then I stood, rubbing my feet on the mat and 
wondering what on earth he had come upon the scene 
for. No good, I felt sure. 

Mr. Lynn Yeames was the son of Mrs. Yeames 
by her second marriage. That was not much in his 
favour, but the rest was still less to his advantage. I 
had been twice employed by Flexmore on his account : 
once, to settle some college debts which Mrs. Yeames 
declared she could not meet, though she could scrape 
enough together to send him to a university for the 
gratification of her wretched vanity, when he ought 
to have been earning his bread, Tike other lads of 
his condition ; and a second time to stay an action 
for breach of promise, threatened by a townsman’s 
daughter with whom he had got entangled. Fellows 
brought up by foolish women on bad principles are 
always either getting out of scrapes or getting into 
them, and I asked myself which purpose had procured 
his uncle the doubtful pleasure of this visit. 

I shook myself together, and went into the library 
with my wits on the alert. 


MR. LYNN YE AMES. 


33 


Lynn Yeames at this time was about four-and- 
twenty, and his looks would have deceived any one 
but a lawyer. A sturdy young fellow of average 
height, but very thick-set, he was dressed in a gray 
Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, with a pair of 
legs that would have done credit to a draymam and 
seemed to be the object of his mother’s constant 
admiration. His skin was very fair, his eyes very 
blue, his lips very red ; his hair was combed down on 
one side of his forehead, and he had a small carroty 
moustache. His manner was effusive, and he affected 
a rollicking dare-devil air, which went well enough 
with his full-blooded complexion, and other signs 
of animal strength, but were not altogether in keep- 
ing with a certain slyness in the turn of his eyes 
and the lowering of their lids. But then this slyness 
was in harmony with his profession of being up to 
all the ways of the world and knowing his way about. 
Most people, I believe, would have been favourably 
impressed with him, and have liked him the better 
for failings which might be attributed to youth and 
exuberant vigour; but I did not like him. 

He had come down, it seemed, to spend a few days 
with the “mater” (I hate young people who can’t 


34 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


call their dearest friend by the sweetest word in the 
language, “ mother ” ), and he had only been here 
a day and was awfully bored already — not a decent 
billiard board in the place, hags at the bars, and not 
a light to be seen after ten-thirty. He wanted to know 
if there was any fishing or shooting, or any mortal 
thing a man might do to earn a night’s repose* 

“ There’s the piano, Lynn, dear,” suggested Mrs. 
Yeames, anxious to show off her son’s accomplish- 
ments. “ You know that you play very well.” She 
said this in French — and bad French too. 

To this he replied in a mixture of the two 
tongues, not loth to show off, that one did not 
come into the country to play Schubert, and that 
sort of thing.” 

“For goodness’ sake, sir, let us confine our talk to 
English or French,” said I. “Have you heard any- 
thing lately from Miss Kite ? ” This was the name of 
the injured young lady at Oxford. 

“ If you please, do not mention the name of that 
horrid, designing, worthless person,” said Mrs. Yeames. 

“ She’s worth four hundred pounds more than she 
was, madam,” said I ; “ for that’s what I had to pay 
to make her withdraw her action.” 


MR. LYNN YE AMES. 


35 


Mrs. Yeames flicked the dust off her silk gown 
and looked extremely uncomfortable. 

“ No new scrape, I hope, Mr. Lynn ? ” I continued. 

“ Not exactly. What the deuce should make you 
suppose there was ? ” he asked sheepishly, for it takes 
very little to upset the equanimity of these boisterous 
young gentlemen. 

“ What made me suppose it ? ” I echoed. “ Why, 
seeing you here ! ” 

“I want to find some shooting. That’s all I came for.” 

“ I can let you have it, if you are prepared to pay. 
I have a client who will let you the shooting over 
two thousand acres.” 

“ That’s my sort. Of course I’ll pay. When can 
I begin to blaze away ? ” 

“As soon as you have settled with me. Come to 
my office and we will arrange it at once.” 

I wanted to get him away from there, for already 
I scented the purpose with which he had been 
brought ; and I was anxious to let him the shooting, 
which was twenty miles off. 

« Oh ! you cannot go yet, dear,” interposed Mrs. 
Yeames; “you have not seen Laure. How is that 
little darling, George, dear ? ” 


36 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ Very well, thank you. She has gone for a walk 
with Miss Dalrymple.” 

“ Miss Dalrymple ? Who is she ? a governess ? ” 
asked Lynn. 

“ Something more than that,” replied Mrs. Yeames, 
“ quite a friend of the family — a most estimable young 
lady. She was a professional nurse, but — what do 
you think? — it turns out she is the niece of the 
Earl of Dunover ! ” 

This change in Mrs. Yeames’s regard towards Ger- 
trude was not surprising, considering what a sycophant 
the widow was ; but nothing could make me believe 
that in the past twenty-four hours she had said not 
a word about her to Lynn. 

“ Gad ! I should like to see the young lady — if she 
is young,” said Lynn. 

“ Oh, she is I assure you, and excessively charming 
and pretty ” said Mrs. Yeames ; “ quite superiah ! You 
really must see her.” 

While this chatter was going on, I drew the draft 
of Flexmore’s will from my pocket, and, as if endors- 
ing it, I wrote in pencil — 

“ They want you to invite them to lunch. Don’t.” 

This I handed to Flexmore. 


MR. LYNN YEAMES. 


37 


“Here is a draft of the agreement you asked me 
for,” said I. 

He looked at the words I had written, and thanked 
me. Then he said he hoped his nephew would call 
in and say good-bye before he left. 

After that the visitors were bound to rise and say 
“Good-bye for the present.” 

“ We’ll go to the office and settle about that shoot- 
ing,” said I, rising at the same time. 

We left Mrs. Yeames at her cottage, and went on 
to my place of business. Nothing was said about my 
old friend Flex more until we had settled about the 
shooting, when Lynn said, as he took up his stick 
and deerstalker — 

“Poor old nuncky looks precious shaky.” 

“He’s much better than he was a month ago,” I 
replied. 

“Shouldn’t think he’d last long, though; should 
you ? He’s sixty-two, you know.” 

“ His life’s worth ten years’ purchase,” said I 
emphatically. 

“ Is it, though ? ” Then, after a pause — “ I suppose 
he’s pretty warm?” 


38 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 



“ Who’s this Miss Thingumbob the mater was 
talking about ? ” 

“Miss Dalrymple. She is a particularly sensible 
young lady,” I replied. 


“ I would give fifty thousand pounds for his estate 
at this moment.” 

“ Fifty thousand, eh ? ” 

Another pause. Then in a careless tone — 


“WE LEFT MRS. YEAMES AT HER COTTAGE.” 


MR. LYNN YEAMES. 


39 


"That means that she knows how to look after 
Number One, I suppose ? ” 

“ If she did not know how to take care of herself, 
I shouldn’t call her sensible.” 

“ Wouldn’t mind marrying the old man if she had 
the chance, eh ? ” 

“ I hope she would not, sincerely.” 

“ Oh, you approve of his marrying Miss Dalrymple, 
do you?” 

“Undoubtedly — for his own sake and the sake of 
his child. It’s the very thing I have been persuading 
him to do.” 

That sly look came into the corner of his blue eye 
and I could fancy him saying to himself — 

“ Here’s an old fool to let me into his client’s secrets. 

He was not sharp enough to see that my object was 
to put him on the wrong scent, and avert his suspicion 
from our actual wish and purpose. 

“Well, if it is really to nuncky’s interest to marry 
the girl, I hope he may get her,” said he, giving me 
his hand ; and we looked straight into each other’s 
face before saying good-bye. I read in his eyes, 
“ But he sha’n’t marry her if I can help it.” What 

he read in mine I cannot say. 

4 


40 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


Business took me to London, and kept me there 
hard at it for a fortnight. I had scarcely time to 
think of old Flexmore, but I went straight to him the 
moment I returned. I found a perceptible difference 
in hi§ appearance : he looked a couple of years older. 

“ I am glad to see you, Tony,” he said, holding my 
hand in his and giving it a trembling shake from 
time to time. “ I am getting anxious about the will. 
I can’t last long, I know; and I am very unsettled 
in my mind about many things/’ 

“ You shall sign the draft, and that will hold good 
in case of accident, while the copy is being drawn up 
in form. We’ll settle that after dinner — for I mean 
to dine with you, George. There’s game cooking 
I can smell it.” 

“Yes; we have had a good deal of game lately. 
Lynn brings something nearly every day.” 

“ What ! he came to stay a week, and is not gone 
yet?” I cried. 

Flexmore shook his head. 

“I don’t think he means to go away either,” he 
said. 

I beat a tattoo on the table while I arranged my 
ideas on this subject. 


MR. LYNN YEAMES. 


41 


“What does he come here for? Do you know, 
George ?” I asked. 

“ To see Miss Dalrymple, I believe. He is paying 
her marked attention.” 

“ I knew it ! ” I cried, slapping my leg. “ I saw 
what he was after.” 

“ Do you think he means to marry her ? Is that 
what you saw?” 

“No; but I saw he had made up his mind to 
prevent you marrying her!” 


CHAPTER IV. 


AN UNLUCKY BEGGAR. 



What I had not 
foreseen was the 
means by which 
Lynn Yeames pre- 
cluded an offer of 
marriage being made 
to Miss Dalrymple 
by his uncle. I had 
not thought of his 
making love to her him- 
self; rather I anticipated 
his taking some under- 
hand measures, in conjunction with his mother, to 
damage the young lady’s character and prejudice 
Flexmore against her. 


AN UNLUCKY BEGGAR. 


43 


“You have not encouraged your nephew’s visits, 
have you, George ? ” I asked. 

“No; at the same time I could not refuse to 
receive him. There is nothing in his behaviour I 
could take exception to. Indeed he has tried his 
utmost to make himself agreeable.” 

“ I don’t doubt that for a moment, hang him ! He 
can make himself pleasant if he likes, or unpleasant 
either. I warrant he’s clever enough to keep his 
mother out of sight, eh ? ” 

“She has not called since the day you met her 
here,” Flexmore answered. 

“And what effect has he made upon Miss Dalrymple 
with his agreeable ways?” 

“I am afraid she likes him. It is only natural 
she should be brighter and gayer in his society. 
I am very dull, and there are no visitors 
here — none of her own age — and then Lynn is 
clever and lively ; he plays nicely, and sings well 
too ” 

“ Oh, bother his singing ! You don’t mean to say 
he has charmed you with his songs?” 

“No. I cannot like him. I fear he is not sincere. 
I may be prejudiced, but ” 


44 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


“You're not. There’s no love-making yet a while — 
Nothing like an engagement?” 

“ Oh, no ! He is simply very attentive, and she 
could not be ungracious.” 

“We must stop it at that. There’s no time to be 
lost,” said I. 

“Do you think he intends to marry her?” 

“Not unless he’s sure she has money. If your 
money were settled on her, he would. We will set 
his mind at rest on that subject.” 

“ How ? ” 

"You must sign your will, and give me permission 
to make its provisions known to Dr. Awdrey. I wager 
we will soon put Master Lynn’s nose out of joint. 
With the prospect of making that girl his wife, dear 
old Awdrey will be another man. Lynn will sink into 
insignificance by the side of that fine fellow, despite 
his music and mongrel French.” 

I took care to be on the road about the time Awdrey 
was starting on his rounds, and when he came up in 
his gig I asked him to give me a lift as far as 
Langly. 

He had to shift half-a-dozen books from the seat 
beside him to make place for me. 


AN UNLUCKY BEGGAR . 


45 


“What on earth are you carting your library 
about for ? ” I asked. 

“ They’re only books of reference. Going along 
straight roads and up-hill I can give the old pony 
the reins and do a bit of work.” 

“ You’re burning the candle at both ends ; it’s bad 
enough to sit up half the night over your books.” 

“ It is the only sort of pleasure a man in my posi- 
tion can afford.” 

“ Then you should alter your position.” 

“ It’s too late to begin a new career. It will come 
all right one of these days, perhaps. People will have 
more confidence in me a.t sixty. At present I don’t 
look as old as I feel.” 

“ Families don’t care for bachelor doctors, that’s a 
fact. You ought to marry j ” 

“ Marry ! ” exclaimed Awdrey, with a grim laugh, 
and then he looked ruefully into the distance. 

“ Yes, marry,” I repeated. “ There’s Miss Dal- 
rymple, you ought to marry her.” 

The colour mounted to his temple, but he said 
nothing in reply to my suggestion. 

“ You’ve known her some time, and you can’t have 
known her without finding out that she has admirable 


46 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


qualities, besides being as pretty a little lady as eyes 
could wish to rest on.” 

“ That is true,” he murmured, caressing the neck 
of the old pony with the end of his whip. 

“ Then why haven’t you proposed to her ? ” I asked 
sharply. 

“Because I’m an unlucky beggar,” he replied 
bitterly — “an unlucky beggar.” 

“No, you’re not.” 

“ What, do you think she likes me ? ” he asked, 
with eager quickness — that being the sort of luck 
he I thought alluded to. 

“ There’s no one who doesn’t like you.” 

“ Oh, in a general way,” said he, in a tone of dis- 
appointment. “ Well, supposing she had liked me 
well enough to risk the chance of poverty, do you 
think it would have been fair to take advantage 
of her courage, knowing what an unlucky beggar 
I am?” 

“But you’re not an unlucky beggar, I keep telling 
you.” 

“Perhaps you will show me where my luck lies, 
for I can’t find it.” 

“ I will show you,” said I, “ if I betray a client’s 


AN UNLUCKY BEGGAR. 


47 


confidence to do it. Read that,” and I put the draft 
of old Flexmore’s will into his hand, open, that he 
might have no hesitation in glancing at it. 

He just ran his eye down the draft, which could 
be read at a glance, for I pride myself on writing 
legibly and bold, and then exclaimed, turning to me 
in astonishment — ^ 

“ Great Heavens ! Why should Flexmore leave me 
all this money ? ” 

“ That you may be in a position to marry the girl 
you love, and that his child should have a good 
woman as well as a good man to protect and be- 
friend her.” 

He dropped his hand, and I folded up the draft 
and slipped it back in my pocket. When I glanced 
at him again he was staring into the distance, and 
there was moisture on the lower lash of his eye. 

“ I am an unlucky beggar,” he murmured again. 

“You’ll make me mad if you say that again, 
Awdrey,” said I impatiently. 

“ Too late ! ” he faltered. “ If I had only known 
this a week ago.” 

“ Well, what difference would that have made ? 
The draft was made out a fortnight ago.” 


48 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“I did not know it. How could I guess such a 
thing ? ” 

“ You know it now, and that’s better than guessing 
it a week ago.” 

He shook his head. 

“Don’t you know that Lynn Yearaes is in love 
with her?” he asked. 

“Lynn Yeames is a sneaking hound!” I said. 
“ A cunning, double-faced ” 

He interrupted me. 

“You must not say anything to me against him. 
He is my friend.” 

“ Your friend ! How long has he been your friend ? ” 

“A week to-morrow. He came to me, and in a 
frank and loyal manner told me that he had heard I 
was an old friend of Miss Dalrymple ; he asked me if I 
were more than her friend — if I intended to make her 
my wife. I knew what that meant, and answered 
that I had no intention to marry her, and that she 
was free so far as I was concerned. ‘In that case,’ 
said he, ‘ I shall make her my wife.’ And we shook 
hands on this understanding. With my hand in his, 
he asked if he might consider me his friend, and I 
answered heartily, yes ! 9 ” 


AN UNLUCKY BEGGAR. 


4 ( J 


“ Confound Lynn Yeames ! ” I cried, unable to 
control my exasperation. 

“ You must admit that he acted openly and loyally,” 
said Awdrey. “You are deceived in him.” 

“ Yes,” I replied, “ for I did not think he was such 
a clever rascal as he is. Awdrey ” — I added, after a 
minute’s thought — “ you must forget last week.” 

“Forget that I renounced all hope of making 
Gertrude my wife ! Forget an understanding made 
with a man to whom I gave my hand as a friend! 
You don’t know me, Mr. Keene.” 

“ Oh, yes, I do,” said I savagely. “ Put me down 
here. I might as well try to soften the Lord Chief 
Justice with a sigh as convert you from your princi- 
ples with reasoning, obstinate, stiff-backed old 
pillmonger ! Here, give me your hand,” I added, 
as I got to the ground, and I tried to hurt him with 
my grip. 

“ There, I’ve done with you ; go on,” said I ; but 
as we parted, I added, speaking to myself, “But 
I’ve not done with Lynn Yeames yet, drat him!’ 


CHAPTER V. 


DIAMOND CUTS DIAMOND. 



When I got back 
to my office I set 
about drawing up 
Flexmore’s will from 
the draft lie had 
agreed to, and every 
word of it gave me 
pleasure, for I saw 
that it would bring 
everything right in 
the end. 

“While Lynn Yeames is doubtful as to the 
disposition of his uncle’s property,” said I to myself 
“ he will refrain from committing himself to an 


DIAMOND CUTS DIAMOND. 


51 


actual promise of marriage. His affair with Miss Kite 
will make him prudent in that respect; for he’ll 
know very well that he won’t get off for £400 a 
second time, if I can help it, and there’ll be no 
uncle to pay the costs. And when he does know that 
his uncle has not left him a stiver, he’ll drop Miss 
Dalrymple as a monkey drops a hot chestnut ; then 
Awdrey will be freed from the Quixotic obligation he 
was lured into making, he will marry Nurse Gertrude, 
and all will end like a fairy story.” 

I was talking to myself in this strain as I proceeded 
to engross the will, when who should come into my 
office but the very person uppermost in my thoughts 
— Lynn Yeames. 

“ I have called to speak to you about that shooting, 
Mr. Keene,” said he, offering his hand. 

I put my quill in my mouth, and gave him my 
hand, then I said — 

“ One moment, Mr. Yeames — I will just finish this 
paragraph, and then we will go into your affair.” 
The fact was I first wanted to settle in my mind 
how I should play with this young gentleman. 

Would it do, I asked myself, to let him know how 
his uncle intended to dispose of his money ? W T ould 


52 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


that lead him to throw up at once a profitless game ? 
I decided that it would not do ; for he would then 
perhaps be urged to get his uncle by hook or by crook 
to revoke this will. By the time I had got to the 
next “ whereas ” I saw a better plan than that. 

“ Now, sir,” said I, laying down my pen, turning 
my chair to face my visitor, and nursing my hands 
on my knee. “Now, sir, I am entirely at your 
service.” 

I assumed a suavity of manner I had not before 
employed with him, for I had to fight Mr. Lynn with 
his own weapon, viz. — hypocrisy. 

“I should like to rent the shooting for another 
month, if I can,” he said. 

“ There’s no difficulty about that. Sir Bartlemy 
V ere is going to Scotland, and I shall be only too glad 
to let the shooting for him — especially as it may keep 
you here longer than we hoped for.” 

He seemed rather puzzled by my civility : he had 
not received much before. He looked at me keenly, 
could not make much by that, and then proceeded to 
look at his gaiters, tapping them carelessly with his 
stick. 

“ I like the place better every day, and the life suits 


DIAMOND CUTS DIAMOND. 


53 


me more than I expected. I suppose all men are more 
or less creatures of circumstance and influenced by 
surrounding conditions. I thought the life of towns 
suited me while I was in them, but since I’ve been 
here I have come to see what a delusive mistake an 
artificial existence is. What can compare with a good 
brisk walk over the breezy downs, the simple fare of a 
country inn, the delight of lying down heavily fatigued, 
to wake at sunrise refreshed and vigorous ? ” 

“To be sure, sir,” said I. “ Nothing in towns can 
compare with these pleasures, if one is properly con- 
stituted for their enjoyment. And certainly from a 
physical point of view you seem peculiarly fitted by 
nature for the life of a country gentleman/’ 

“ I am, Mr. Keene — I feel that I am. I only regret 
that I did not find out my mistake earlier. I have 
done many foolish things in the past four years, many 
things perhaps that are more than foolish. I should 
wish to forget the past altogether, but that the re- 
membrance may serve to strengthen me in following 
a wiser and better course, if not a noble one.” 

I will undertake to say that no young man, not 
naturally a humbug, ever made such a speech as this 
on the spur of the moment. I don’t believe in sudden 


54 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


conversions, and the precipitate turning over of new 
leaves, by vigorous young fellows under five-and- 
twenty. Plums that have the appearance of ripeness- 
before their season are rotten at the kernel invariably. 
However I smiled and nodded my hearty approval 
of his fine sentiments. 

“ I suppose a man could live here for a couple of 
hundred a year ? ” he said, after a sigh over his mis- 
spent youth. 

“ In a quiet way, he could live on that sum un- 
doubted ly,” said I. 

“ That’s all I want. I made a fortunate investment 
that brings me in about two hundred. Living with 
my mother, who thinks of buying that cottage ” 

“ I can get it for her on very reasonable terms,” 
said I. with a show of eagerness. 

“Of course, she would ask your assistance in the 
purchase.” 

I rubbed my hands cheerfully, as if the prospect of 
getting ten per cent, out of the purchase delighted 
me, and promised to make a good bargain for Mrs. 
Yeames. 

“ And so I hope to settle down to a peaceful life. 
I feel better already with the prospect of it.” 


DIAMOND CUTS DIAMOND . 


55 


I shook his hand in cordial felicitation, though it 
cost me an effort to swallow the humbug without 
making a wry face. But I saw suspicion in the 
corner of his blue eye. 

“ This will be good news indeed for your uncle, Mr. 
Lynn,” said I. 

“ Do you think he takes any interest in me ? ” he 
asked, trying to look indifferent. 

“I assure you he does. He was speaking about 
you only yesterday — saying how much you had 
changed for the better in the last fortnight. It is 
only natural he should feel very deeply in this matter 
and watch this change in your character with keen 
delight. He is in failing health, you know.” I 
twiddled my thumbs, and looked at him significantly. 
“You are his kinsman — remotely.” I paused. “He 
is particularly anxious about the future of his little 
daughter.” I coughed. “ And though he may have 
unbounded faith in my integrity he would naturally 
prefer to place her welfare in the keeping of a 
relative who could devote himself exclusively to her 
interest. Up to the present time I have had the man- 
agement of your uncle's estate, but of course it would 

be optional on his successor to employ me as agent.” 

5 


56 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ I should not wish to take it out of your hands, 
Mr. Keene — that is,” he said quickly, seeing the 
mistake into which he had been led by the excite- 
ment of the moment, “if the property ever should 
become mine.” 

“Thank you, Mr. Yeames. I’m sure I shall be 
most happy to serve you, as I have served your 
uncle, faithfully, and upon the lowest possible 
terms.” 

“ I shan’t question your terms. Faithful services 
should be liberally rewarded in my opinion.” 

I thanked him effusively, and sighed as if I had 
had a load taken off my mind. 

“Well, sir,” said I, “you cannot, of course, wish 
me to divulge professional confidence; but I may 
tell you this. Your uncle has instructed me to 
draw up his will, and this is it.” I laid my hand 
on the will. “And I may add for your further 
satisfaction, that had your character been other 
than he has found it in the past fortnight the terms 
of this will” — I patted the sheet impressively and 
dropped my voice — “ would have been very different 
from what they are.” 

He was completely taken in; and so overcome 


DIAMOND CUTS DIAMOND. 


57 


with astonishment and delight to find, as he believed, 
that he was heir to £50,000, that for some minutes 
he could not command his thoughts, but simply 
answered “yes” or “no” to my remarks without really 
following what it was I talked about. He was 
thinking what he would do with that money 
when he got it. However, he recovered his self- 
possession before he left, and when we shook hands 
in parting, that cunning look was in his eyes. I 
know well enough what was in his thoughts. 

“ You old rascal ! ” he was saying to himself. “ I 
can see now why you were so precious civil. You 
want me to let you go on fingering those £50,000 
when they are mine.” That was just what I wanted 
him to believe. 

In the evening there came a couple of brace of 
partridges with his card attached. At the first 
moment I felt disposed to pitch them into the yard 
for the cat to eat; but as the result of second 
thoughts I ate them myself, and found them just 
as good as if I had given an honest poulterer 
half-a-crown a brace for them. 


CHAPTER VI. 


TWO PHASES OF A GOOD GIRL’S CHARACTER. 

I DO not know whether I am particularly sharp 
in penetrating character — though I have a decent 
opinion of my ability in that respect — or whether 
other people are particularly obtuse ; but this is a 
fact — Lynn Yeames succeeded in deceiving every- 
body but me. 

He was of that class of charitable people who 
will give a guinea at any time to have their names 
in a subscription list, no matter what the object 
be — and five to head it. Lynn Yeames, Esq., of 
“ The Hut,” (as with affected humility he called his 
mothers cottage when she had bought it), was 
down for everything. He interested himself in 
local matters, siding always with the majority; he 
became a member of the County Club, bought a 


A GOOD GIRL'S CHARACTER . 


59 


horse and got admitted to the hunt ; and with bis 
good looks, manly bearing, admirable horsemanship, 
and skilful freehandedness made himself generally 
popular. One way and another I reckoned he was 
living up to nearer eight hundred than two hundred 
a year. 

“ A pretty rod you’re laying in pickle for yourself, 
my boy,” said I to myself, and chuckled to think 
how he would have to draw in his horns when he 
found that he was down in his uncle’s will for a 
trifling legacy of one hundred pounds instead of the 
£50,000 he was calculating upon. 

All this time he was paying assiduous attention 
to Miss Dalrymple. He saw, though he said nothing 
about it to me, that his uncle was thinking of 
Laure’s future, and wished to provide for her 
perpetual association with Gertrude, and he knew 
the hold he had upon old Flexmore through this 
pretended attachment to her. Cunning rascal ! 

I let him go on, conscious that he would not go 
too far. It was not likely that, feeling now assured 
of that large inheritance, he would pledge himself 
to marry a penniless girl. With his uncle’s fortune 
and the effect he was now producing, he would be 


60 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


able to take the pick of the county when he wished 
to marry ; and there were within twenty miles many 
girls more showy than quiet, unpretentious, little 
Miss Dalrymple, girls with money, and much more 
to the taste of such a man as he. But though he 
would not be rash enough to actually engage 
himself, it was pretty certain that he would 
insidiously lead my unsuspecting little, friend to 
believe that he intended to marry her, and I feared 
that he might obtain such a hold upon her affection 
that when he threw up the game, as he inevitably 
would when he discovered that there was nothing: 
to win by it, the effect upon her would be serious. 
She was not a flirt ; she had never cut up her 
heart into morsels and scattered it about amongst 
a crowd of admirers; her heart was whole to be 
given to one man, and one only. She was serious 
and earnest in all things, and it seemed to me 
possible that she might never care to give to 
a second man the affection that had been despised 
by the first. For this reason I resolved if I got the 
opportunity to shake her faith in Mr. Lynn Yeames. 

One day I met her alone in the road that cuts 
through the Hazledown Woods. 


A GOOD GIRDS CHARACTER. 


61 


“ Here is a beautiful morning, Miss Dalrymple,” 
said I, holding her hand. 

“ Oh ! it is beautiful ! ” she exclaimed, looking round 
her. “ See how the rime still stands on the brake, 
and look how the drops glisten on the gossamer. 
And what lovely tints there are on the beeches, and 
the brambles down there/’ 

“You are thinking that they owe their beauty to 
decay.” 

“ Why do you say that ? ” 

“ Because your tone is sad.” 

“ The woods are sad ; but I love the country for all 
that,” she hastened to add. 

“Yet you would prefer at this moment to be in 
your London hospital. You feel that you are wasting 
your time here — that’s the fact, isn’t it ? ” 

« I should be sorry to think that,” she replied, with 
quiet gravity. 

“ But you are. Here you are saving the life of one 
child ; there you might be saving a dozen.” 

“ They will be saved without me.” 

“ And little Laure would be lost— that is true.” 

“ Let us talk about the country,” she said, as we 
walked on. 


62 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“No; we will talk about people. Lawyers and 
ladies do not care for things ; the business of their 
lives is with people. I’ve noticed an instance of this 
in picture galleries : the men, not lawyers, hang about 
the landscapes; the women flock round the figure 
pictures. I warrant you skip description of scenery 
in novels, and go on to where dialogue indicates 
human interest ; if you don’t it’s because you are too 
conscientious.” 

She laughed lightly and then said — 

“ Well, whom shall we talk about ? * 

“ There is a man worth talking about,” said I, 
pointing down to the cross roads, where I spied Dr. 
Awdrey jogging along in his gig on his beggarly 
round. 

“ Oh, I don’t think there is a better man than he 
in all the world ! ” she cried, with enthusiasm. 

“ If he were only a little more practical,” said I. 

“I can’t see that he would be better for that, 
though he might have been more prosperous.” 

“ How?” 

“ Do you know what he used to do at the hos- 
pital ? ” 

“ No.” 




64 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ Sit down by the cots and tell the little ones fairy 
tales.” 

“ That’s characteristic of him,” said I laughing. 
“Well?” 

“ The matron did not like it. She thought he was 
neglecting his duty ; at any rate, she said so. And 
one day I heard Dr. Templeton say to him, ‘ Awdrey, 
if you want to get on, you’ll give the brats physic 
instead of stories.’ ” 

“ And that made no difference to his course of treat- 
ment, I suspect ? ” 

“ Not a bit. And oh, how the children loved him ! ” 

“ And hated the matron. I can guess the rest, he 
had to clear out of the hospital ?” 

She inclined her head, and presently said — 

“ I sometimes think he would have died a martyr 
had he lived a long while ago.” 

“ I don’t see what else there is in store for him 
now if he is left to his own devices. There he goes, 
to look after a lot of thankless vagabonds, who’ll 
never pay him for saving their lives.” 

“ It is a higher form of martyrdom, I suppose.” 

“ I don’t believe in martyrdom.” 

“ What would you have him do ? ” 


A GOOD GIRDS CHARACTER. 


65 


“ Make the beggars pay. Give all he can spare to 
charities as an advertisement. You must be practical 
to be good. Keep pace with the times. Advertise 
yourself and make money.” 

“ That would not make him better.” 

“ It would increase his power of doing good, and 
enable him to live happily.” 

She looked thoughtfully before her for a minute, 
then she said — 

“ Do you think he could ever be happy — in the 
ordinary sense of the word ? ” 

“ Yes, if he married.” 

“ Married ! ” she echoed, in surprise, as if such an 
idea had never before occurred to her. “ I cannot 
think of that as a cure for unhappiness in his 
case.” 

“ Why not ? ” 

“ He is so — so serious.” 

“And ought not a man to be serious when he 
marries ? Is it not one of the gravest responsibilities 
a man can take on himself — or a woman either, for 
that?” 

“ I mean to say that he seems so absorbed in his 
studies.” 


66 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


“ Because it is his only escape from misery.” 

She made no response. 

“ You must not forget that this serious man, despite 
being absorbed in study, could bewitch little children 
with fairy stories.” 

“ I do not think he will ever marry,” she said, 
shaking her head gravely, after a pause. 

“ Why not ? ” I asked ; “ he is a man — and a fine 
man, too.” 

She was silent. 

“ The only difficulty,” I continued, “ is in getting 
any one to have him.” 

She looked surprised. 

“ A man without superficial attractions and without 
money,” said 1, shrugging my shoulders, “ what chance 
has he ? ” 

‘‘Do you think all girls are either silly or mer- 
cenary ? ” she asked. 

“ There’s a third section : but they don’t care for 
good men ; they prefer rakes.” 

I have mentioned the girl’s trick of blushing, and 
looking sidelong in the expectation of seeing this 
home-thrust bring the colour up to her temples, I was 
surprised to see that it produced rather a contrary effect. 


A GOOD GIRDS CHARACTER. 


G7 


She blanched, and echoed my word in a low tone of 
deprecation. 

“ I don’t mean an absolutely bad man, but one who 
thinks he is reformed,” said I, “ and attributes, or 
leads it to be imagined that he owes, his reformation 
to the girl’s influence.” 

I was morally certain that Lynn Yeames had not 
ascribed his change to the effects of a country life in 
his conversation with Gertrude, however he had 
chosen to represent it to me. 

“ It flatters the girl’s vanity to think that she has 
redeemed the man,” I added. 

“ Is it vanity and nothing else that makes one 
delight in doing good ? ” 

“ I can’t say, my dear — not having had much 
experience in that way myself; but this I know, 
that every good girl must be doing good, ought to 
be doing good, or thinks she is doing good.” 

“We are not worth much if we do not, you 
think ? ” she asked. 

“ Yes, that is what I do think— not only of girls, 
but men as well (bar lawyers). I speak of good 
girls, and no good girl would be content to be a 
mere toy, an idle plaything, for a man’s leisure 


68 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


moments. And the wish to save some man from 
evil courses too often leads the girl herself into an 
evil course.” 

“ An evil course ? ” she said, interrogatively. 

“ Yes : the evil course of putting faith in appear- 
ances, and lending a credulous ear to empty pro- 
testations. That course may lead to irremediable 
misfortune and life-long unhappiness.” 

This was plain enough in all conscience, yet she 
did not allow herself to show that she saw the 
personal allusion to her own case. She was a 
wonderfully self-possessed young woman, and more- 
over had too much principle to suffer the opinion 
of others to bias her own estimate of a trusted 
friend ; indeed, I believe that her loyal heart became 
only the more staunch by the defence of those she 
loved against an accusation in which she herself 
found no reason to participate. Of this she gave 
convincing proof later on, as I shall show. 

Soon after this a ball was given, in aid of some 
philanthropic cause, of course — I forgot what ; people 
will dance or dine to alleviate any misery that 
might have been prevented at half the cost — and 
equally of course, Lynn Yearn es was a steward and 


A GOOD GIRL'S CHARACTER. 


69 


figured prominently in the advertisements. Well, 
whether it was to please herself, or to please Lynn 
Yeames, or just to show she did not value my 
warning at two straws, I don’t know; but this is 
certain, Miss Dairy mple went to that ball under 
the protection of Mrs. Yeames, who, ever since the 
discovery at the flower-show, had shown herself 
mighty civil to the young lady. I went also, not to 
dance, it is certain, but to keep in with my clients 
for I hold that a man to succeed must be seen every- 
where, and not bury himself in his study like poor 
Dr. Awdrey, who, I dare say, was sitting by some 
ailing pauper, or grinding away with a pestle and 
mortar and a book before him, while the girl he 
loved was being hugged and twizzled round by his 
rival. 

I look upon dancing as a protest of natural man 
against civilization, and if you just close your ears to 
the music and simply look at twenty or thirty couples 
of men and women hopping about like demented 
grasshoppers you must admit that the least said 
about the march of intellect in this nineteenth 
century the better. Nevertheless, it charmed me 
to watch Miss Dalrymple. Her eyes black as sloes 


70 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


with excitement, her face glowing with healthy 
exercise, her pretty figure and supple body taking 



Q RINDING AWAY WITH A PESTLE AND MORTAR AND A BOOK BEFORE HIM.” 


on the prettiest curves with her graceful movements, 
her little feet moving quicker than the eye could 


A GOOD GIRL'S CHARACTER. 


71 


follow them; she looked prettier than ever I had 
seen her yet. No, there was not one in the room to 
compare with her, either in looks or movement. I 
wondered how ever I could have thought her plain. 

“ If they were all like you, my dear,” said I to 
myself, “it would be a real pleasure to come to 
these affairs ” 

She enjoyed it thoroughly, for she was young and 
healthy in mind and body, and could be wise without 
being morose, and merry without being what is called 
fast. The music, the motion, the light and bright- 
ness of the surroundings exhilarated her ; and then 
she must have known that she danced well and was 
admired, and I believe such a belief as that would 
set the Lord Chancellor jigging in his wig and gown. 
I think it mattered little to her whom she danced 
with, so that he danced well, for she was free from 
any idea of flirtation, and just as innocent and pure 
and sweet and good as she looked. 

I wished Awdrey, who loved her, had been there to 
see this side of her character, but on second thoughts 
I was glad he had other matters to think about ; for 
the pleasure of seeing her happy, though it would 
have delighted his honest, unselfish heart, must have 


72 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


been outweighed by the pain of thinking she could 
never be to him but a beautful vision to look upon. 

That is what he would have felt, not knowing 
what I knew, and how all things would turn out for 
the best in the end — how Lynn would be discom- 
fited, how his real disposition would be seen when 
he discovered the mistake I had led him into, how 
Miss Dalrymple would then see clearly the fate she 
had escaped, and how her heart would turn to the 
really good man when she was disenchanted of the 
merely showy one. 

But this I could not have hinted to him, so on the 
whole I was glad to think there were paupers and 
pestles and mortars and books to keep him away. 
Miss Dalrymple was recognized as the belle of the 
ball — she could have filled her programme a dozen 
times, I know. She danced every dance — three with 
Lynn Yeames — the first, the supper dance, and the 
last. 

I enjoyed seeing her dance with every one except 
with Lynn Yeames’ and it stirred up all the bile 
in my nature when he took her hand and put his 
arm round her waist. He trod on one old gentle- 
man’s toe, and I wished it had been mine ; for in 


A GOOD GIRDS CHARACTER. 


73 


that mood I only wanted an excuse to knock his 
head off. 

The fact is I was as jealous as though I had 
been in love with Miss Dalrymple myself — which, 
of course, I was not ; an old fellow in his sixtieth 
year — sixty-second, in factl 


CHAPTER VII. 


LYNN FALLS INTO A TRAP. 


DID not anticipate any serious consequences from 



that ball. It seemed to me that Miss Dalrymple 
was entirely occupied with the delight of dancing, and 
doubtless no thought of anything else could have 
entered her head without being suggested to her. 
But that was not the case with Lynn Yeames. One 
can imagine what passes in the mind of a fox as he 
looks on a brood of ducklings sporting in a pond. 
He is just lying perdu licking his chops and waiting 
for the plumpest and nicest to come off the water. 
Some one, a lady, I will not tell you who, has just 
looked over my shoulder and whispered — “Try to 
be just!” Very well, then; the most generous — 
supposition I can make with regard to Lynn Yeames 
is that he was carried away by the good looks of 


LYNN FALLS LNTO A TRAP . 


75 


Miss Dalrymple, and perceiving that she was the 
best woman of the throng, both in appearance and 
family connection, he magnanimously resolved to sink 
the consideration of her being poor and resolved 
to secure her at any price, no matter how rich he 
might be by the death of his uncle. 

Somehow or other he proposed to her that night 
— between the dances, perhaps when he led her into 
the adjoining room for refreshment, though more prob- 
ably the old woman, his mother, shammed sleep 
in the brougham to give her son the opportunity as 
they were taking Miss D. home. How I came to 
know of it was in this wise — 

Two mornings after the ball Dr. Awdrey called on 
me looking as yellow as an old title deed. 

“You must go up to Flexmore House at once/* 
he said, without asking me how I was or any other 
preliminary civility. 

“ What for ? ” I asked, for his manner was so set 
and firm I could make nothing of it. 

“ Flexmore is in a critical condition — there’s not a 
moment to spare.” 

“What’s the matter with him?” I asked, as I 
took my hat from the peg. 




SOMEHOW OR OTHER HE PROPOSED TO HER THAT NIGHT. 






LYNN FALLS INTO A TRAP. 


77 


“ Heart disease. He had an attack yesterday 
morning; another may be fatal” 

“ Poor old fellow ! Does he know his danger ? 
Is he conscious ? 99 

“Yes, perfectly. He knows his condition; that is 
why he wishes to see you at once” 

“ What does he want me for ? ” I asked, suddenly- 
guessing at the truth from the doctor’s manner. 

“He wants to see you about that fool of a will 
you drew up for him.” 

I was about to defend “ that fool of a will ” ; but 
he drew me away impatiently. 

“Get into my trap,” he said, “I tell you there is 
no time to waste.” 

“ Aren’t you coming with me ? ” I asked, as he 
put the reins in my hand. 

“ No ; I have another case to attend. I can do 
nothing for Flexmore at present; Miss Dalrymple 
has my instructions and I can rely on her carrying 
them out.” 

I drove over to Flexmore House suspecting mis- 
chief. I found my old friend in bed, but perfectly 
calm and collected. Miss Dalrymple was in the room 
with little Lauie, who clung to her hand as though 


78 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


she felt that soon there would be but that to protect 
and befriend her. Flexmore took my hand with a 
smile — a silent greeting that was more touching than 
words. 

“ My dear,” he said to Miss Dalrymple, “ you must 
leave us for a few minutes, please ; we have a little 
matter of business to discuss, my old friend and I.” 

She went from the room with the child, after 
warning me in a whisper that Mr. Flexmore was not 
to be excited, and that my visit should be short. 

“Well, what is it, George?” I asked, going back 
to the bedside. 

“ Tony, you must alter that will or draw up another 
at once.” 

A grunt on my part told him that I understood, 
if I did not approve, what he said. 

“ You thought right to tell Dr. Awdrey of the pro- 
vision I had made ? ” said he. 

“ Yes, and I very sincerely wish I hadn’t. Awdrey’s 
a fool,” said I. 

“ No, he is not, Tony. He’s a fine fellow in every 
way — a grand fellow.” 

“Well, what has he done lately to give you that 
opinion, hey?” 


LYNN FALLS INTO A TRAP. 


79 


“ He refuses to be Laure’s guardian or trustee for 
her fortune.” 

“ He can’t get out of it il you let the will stand ; 
we shall see ” 

“ But the will must not stand ; he has shown me 
that. For the child’s sake, for that dear girl, Ger- 
trude’s sake, it must he altered. They must not be 
separated. The money must be left in trust, and her 
guardian and trustee must be my nephew, Lynn 
Yeames.” 

“ Nonsense ! As soon as Lynn Yeames finds he 
has nothing, he’ll cease to pester Miss Dalrymple ; 
he’ll never marry her if he gets the money ; and then 
how is your little Laure to live with her? A proof 
that he doesn’t mean to marry her is that he has 
been hanging about her for months, but has carefully 
refrained from binding himself to any engagement.” 

“You are wrong, Keene. He proposed to her the 
night before last.” 

This took my breath away, and left me no ground 
to stand on. 

“ And she accepted him ? * I gasped, after an in- 
erval of silence. 

“She did. Yeames told Dr. Awdrey yesterday 


80 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


morning. He came at once to me, and arrived at 
the very moment I was seized with the attack — other- 
wise I might not have survived it. He was with me 
all night ; and this morning, finding me sufficiently 
recovered to listen to argument, he had this out 
with me. He has the highest opinion of Lynn — so 
has Miss Dalrymple, or she would certainly not have 
accepted him. I myself see no reason to disbelieve 
in him. In fact, it’s only you, Tony, who stick out so 
obstinately against him, and you, as every one knows, 
are a man of strong prejudices — very strong pre- 
judices.” 

“I a man of strong prejudices?” I gasped. “I, 
a lawyer, whose business it is to weigh both sides of 
a question and decide impartially? I, an old man 
of the world ” 

“ I don't care what you may be ; I know you’re 
an obstinate, pig-headed old fellow. God bless you, 
though ! — but you must let me have my way — T 
know I am right. No argument will change me — 
I must have my way.” 

A gentle rap at the door reminded me that I 
must not excite my poor, weak-minded old friend, 
nor prolong my visit unduly. 


LYNN FALLS INTO A TRAP . 


81 


“ Good,” said I. “ I’ll draw up another will. It 
shall be just as you wish.” 

“ Thank you ; thanks, Tony. You have merely 
to scratch out Awdrey’s name, and substitute my 
nephew’s. The will is in that box; the key ” 

“ Oh, I don’t want that. I have the draft at my 
office. There must be no scratching out in a thing of 
this kind. A new will must be properly drawn up.” 

He gave me his hand, and held it with an expres- 
sive look; it seemed to say to me “We have been 
friends, you and I, many years, Anthony Keene, and 
soon it will be ended. You will be a friend to me 
to the last, and let no opinion of your own impede 
the fulfilment of this my last wish;” and I nodded, 
for I could not speak because of my emotion. Then 
I went away, determined to carry out his instructions 
to the letter, and return with the will for him to 
sign as quickly as I could. 

As I left the house, I spied Lynn Yeames coming 
down the road ; but I had no patience to speak to 
him, and jumping in the doctor’s gig, I drove off as 
quickly as I could. 

He saw me. My haste’ must have disquieted him. 
“ What’s that old lawyer doing there ? ” he doubtless 


8 2 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


asked himself. I believe he partly suspected the 
truth : that Flexmore had sent for me to alter his will 
— anything but a pleasant prospect to him, who be- 
lieved that the will already made was in his favour. 

I kept the gig at the door; and then, going into 
my office, I fetched out the draft of the old will and 
a sheet of foolscap to write the new one upon. J ust 
at that moment my housekeeper came in to say that 
my lunch was served. I had an hour’s work before 
me; it would take me another hour and a half to 
carry it over to Flexmore, get his signature, and 
return. Whether I took the will over in an hour and 
a half or in two hours did not make much differ- 
ence in my belief; but it mattered a good deal 
whether I went without lunch for two and a half 
hours ; and reflecting that a man always works better 
and quicker if his physical wants are supplied, I 
resolved to knock off my meal before I went any 
farther. 

Just as I was finishing, there was a ring at the 
bell, and my housekeeper brought in word that Mr. 
Lynn Yeames wished to see me. “ Ah, ah ! 99 thought 
I, “ he wants to pump me again, does he ? All right, 
so he shall.” So I bade the housekeeper show him 


LYNN FALLS INTO A TRAP. 


83 


into my office, and say I would be with him in a 
minute or two. I emptied my glass, and rose to join 
my visitor in the next room. 

In that moment it struck me that I had left the 
draft of the old will on the office table beside the 
sheet of fresh foolscap. 

I went on tiptoe to the door, and peeped through 
the green taffety blind. Lynn Yeames was standing 
by the table, looking round him curiously; I could 
see him distinctly, but he could not see me, by reason 
of the light from the office window falling on the 
blind. Quickly he caught up the draft, and ran his 
eye down it. 

Now this being only a draft, had neither date 
nor signature, and he must have jumped at once to 
the conclusion that it was the copy of a will I was 
about to draw up ; and seeing that by this draft all 
Flexmore’s money w T as left to Awdrey, it must have 
convinced him that this instrument was intended to 
revoke that will which I had led him to believe was 
made in his favour. 

The sheet fell from his hand ; he stooped hastily, 
picked it up and replaced it on the table. I moved 
a chair, made a clatter with an empty plate as if I 


84 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


were just rising from my lunch, then I opened the 
door and entered my office briskly. Lynn Yeames 
was seated at some distance from the table, and 
looking as pale as a muffin. 

“ How do you do, sir ? ” said I. “ You don’t look 
quite yourself this morning.” 

“ I am upset : my uncle is in a critical condition 
— I don’t know whether you know it.” 

“Yes,” said I, shaking my head gravely. “I’m 
afraid it is all over with my old friend this time. 
We must prepare for the worst — we must prepare for 
the worst, Mr. Yeames,” I repeated, significantly. 

It told, that shot, though he pretended not to be hit. 

“Yes, yes,” said he uneasily; “I came over to 
tell you — I thought you ought to know, in case 
there was any legal matter to arrange.” 

“As it happens there is a very important matter 
to arrange. I have just come back from Flexmore 
House — you heard nothing there ? ” 

“Nothing — my uncle could not see me. What is 
the matter?” 

“Well — of course I can place confidence in you, 
Mr. Yeames?” 

“ I give you my word of honour that — you may 


LYNN FALLS INTO A TRAP. 


85 


depend upon my secrecy,” he hastened to assure 
me. 

“ Good, sir. I trust to your honour. Your uncle 
is about to revoke his will.” And I glanced signifi- 
cantly at the papers on the table. “ I assure you,” 
I continued, “ I have done all in my power to per- 
suade him to the contrary.” 

“ Of course you have, in your own interest,” said 
he savagely. 

“ One must consider one’s own interests some- 
times ; and after having had the management of the 
estate for so many years ” 

“What on earth has induced him to revoke it?” 
he asked, taking very slight pains to conceal his 
chagrin. 

I hummed and hahed for some time, and then 
I said, “ I believe he has been considerably in- 
fluenced by Dr. Awdrey.” 

“ Good Heavens ! ” he exclaimed. “ What has he 
been talking about?” 

“ Well,” said I still with a good deal of sham hesi- 
tation, “I believe you were indiscreet enough to 
inform him that you had proposed to, and been 
accepted by, Miss Dalrymple.” 


86 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


He started as I told him this. 

" To what use has the rascal put that knowledge ? v 
he asked. 

“We must not call Dr. Awdrey a rascal, sir,” 
said I. “All of us have our own interests to look 
after. And really Dr. Awdrey’s case is plausible 
enough.” 

“ I don’t understand you ; what do you mean ? 
he asked sharply. 

“You see it’s almost an open secret, at any rate 
the fact has for some time been known to Dr. 
Awdrey that my old friend Flexmore wished Miss 
Dalrymple to marry the doctor — one of those curious 
fads that invalids occasionally take up. I don’t 
know if you have ever remarked ” 

“Go on, go on, for heaven’s sake !” he exclaimed, 
interrupting me impatiently. 

“Well, sir, lately it has been obvious that Flex- 
more’s daughter Laure has formed a very strong 
attachment for Miss Dalrymple — a most extraordinary 
attachment.” 

“Yes, I know all about that. Go on.” 

“ Well, you see it is obvious that Miss Dalrymple 
cannot marry both you and Dr. Awdrey; while, at 


LYNN FALLS INTO A TRAP. 


87 


the same time, it is equally evident that were 
you the child’s guardian, and from any unforeseen 
accident you might alter your intention with regard 
to matrimony, Miss Dalrymple could only marry Dr. 
Awdrey by separating herself from the child Laure.” 

“ But I could be trustee to the child’s fortune, and 
leave her guardianship to Miss Dalrymple, couldn’t 
I?” 

“Oh, certainly, if there were time to persuade 
your uncle to such an arrangement, which,” I added, 
with a profound sigh, “I fear there is not.” 

He turned his back upon me, and going to the 
window looked out into the thick gray mist, whiie 
I, with two or three little coughs, seated myself at 
the table, and began laboriously to draw up the new 
will, my spectacles low down on my nose, and one 
hand on the old draft, which I frequently consulted. 

“How long will you be before you take that thing 
up to the house to be signed ? ” asked Lynn Yeames 
who, as I lifted my eyes, I found was regarding me 
attentively. 

I looked at my watch, and then raising my eye- 
brows at the draft — 

“ Dr. Awdrey was good enough to lend me his gig 
7 


88 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


that no time should be lost; and if all goes well, I 
shall be at Flexmore’s house at half-past two — near 
as possible.” 

He drew his hat a little lower over his brows, and 
quitted my office without a word. As the door 
slammed, I laid down my pen, put my hands on 
my knees, and had a good chuckle, for I felt I had 
played that game of cross purposes very well. 

But how would it end ? That I could not foresee. 
That he had gone off with some definite and imme- 
diate purpose I was convinced. Would he in the 
next hour undo himself completely by throwing off 
Miss Dalrymple and making his uncle understand 
that he had no intention of marrying her ? It would 
be sharp work; but men lose no time when their 
fortunes are at stake. “ We shall see,” said I, re- 
turning to my work, for which I hoped there 
would be no need when I went up for Flexmore's 
signature. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


I FALL OUT. OF A TRAP. 

~pT was two o’clock when I got into the doctor’s 
gig with the new will. My house was just on the 
outskirts of the town ; Flexmore’s was two or three 
miles beyond, on the other side of Beagle Woods. 

The mist had been thick all the morning ; but it 
was thicker than ever when I started, so that I 
could not see three yards ahead with my glasses on. 
However, I knew I could trust to the intelligence 
of the doctor’s nag, who took that road every day in 
the week, and nights as well sometimes ; and with 
my collar well up, and my nose well down in a com- 
forter, off I started. 

I jogged along pretty comfortably until we got 
into the Beagle Woods; there the mist seemed to 
have settled down into a solid block, and the big 


90 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


trees that skirt the road on either side increased 
the obscurity. However the nag kept on her ambling 
trot — I believe the beast was so accustomed to the 
road that she was dozing best part of the time — till 
presently, smash ! Down she went without any kind 
of warning, up dashed the seat of the gig, and out I 
flew, as though I had been shot from a catapult. 

I was on my legs in a moment, for my first thought 
was of the will I had stuck under the seat cushion, 
and I feared the nag would start up and bolt with 
it. I could hear her breathing heavily; she did not 
attempt to move. I ran back in that direction, when 
— bang ! over I went again, flat on my nose. I had 
felt something strike against my shins, and as I 
rose to my feet once more, I discovered the cause 
of both falls — a cord was stretched across the 
road. 

It slackened as I touched it, and the next moment 
was whisked out of my hands. Was this the wanton 
mischief of boys, or the sinister design of some one 
bent upon plunder? 

“ My name’s Anthony Keene, and you shall suffer 
for this, you vagabonds, whoever you are ! ” I shouted, 
as I groped my way to the gig. I am well known 


I FALL OUT OF A TRAP. 


91 


in Coneyford, and I knew that if they were hoys 
they would scuttle off on hearing my name. 

There was no sound of voice or footfall — only the 
old nag gasping on the ground ; then I felt sure 
it was the work of a man. But I was not fearful 
of any further mischief, for the thief must be fool- 
hardy indeed to attack an old lawyer, who is more 
likely to get him into trouble than yield much in 
the way of booty. 

Feeling about the poor old horse, I found that 
both the shafts were broken, so there was no thought 
of going on in the gig even if the horse’s legs were 
not broken as well. The will was just where I had 
stuck it, under the strap of the cushion; I clapped 
it in my pocket, and, after a moment’s reflection, 
started off to walk the remainder of the journey, 
leaving horse and trap in the road to take their 
chance. 

A nice walk I had — tumbling into a ditch on the 
right, and then a ditch on the left, running flat up 
against a brick wall, and then pitching on to a pile 
of flints by the roadside, all the time in such dark- 
ness and impenetrable fog, that for all I knew I 
might have been walking half the time in a circle. 


92 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


To make matters worse, I found my nose was bleed- 
ing from the fall I got over the cord. It seemed 
to me I should never get to my journey’s 
end. 

However, after a time it grew less obscure, which 
made me think I must have got clear of the Beagle 
Woods, which was a comfort ; and shortly afterwards 
I heard footsteps approaching. 

“ Who’s there ? ” I called, when I felt it was time 
to speak, lest I ran into something fresh. 

“ Sam Martin. Be that you, Muster Keene ? * 
replied a well-known voice. 

“Yes, it is. How far am I from Mr. Flexmore’s 
house ? ” 

“ About half a mile — keep straight on by the paling. 
Thought it were you, Mr. Keene, by your little 
squeaking voice. Shall I turn back wi’ ye?” 

“ No. Go straight on. I’ve left the doctor’s trap 
in the road — horse down — see what you can do with 
it, Sam Martin, and take care no one else comes 
into mischief over it.” 

I got to the palings by the park, and kept them in 
touch until at length I reached the carriage drive 
gate of Flexmore House. By this time, what with 


I FALL OUT OF A TRAP . 


93 


one accident and another, it must have been pretty 
nearly four o’clock. 

There were lights in the house. Before the door 
stood Lynn Yeames’s mare, Flexmore’s gardener 
holding his head. 

“Afternoon, sir,” said he in an undertone that 
spoke of calamity. There was foreboding silence 
also on the part of the maidservant as she opened 
the sitting-room door. 

Miss Dalrymple was on her knees before a big 
chair drawn near the fire, in which little Laure sat 
her face buried in her hands. They were not aware 
of my presence, so softly had the maid opened and 
closed the door. 

Miss Dalrymple drew the child’s head upon her 
bosom and bent her lips down to the little brow ? 
and then began to murmur words of sympathy and 
love in her low, sweet, tender voice. I knew what 
had happened, and would not disturb that gentle 
communion. I stood there looking at that touching 
picture through tears that dimmed my eyes. It may 
have been only the effect of the fog, those tears ; 
it may have been the reflection that I should never 
more hear my old friend’s voice, or it may have been 


94 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


this testimony of a woman’s compassion. Dealing 
with men and women, for the most part hard 
and selfish, makes one cynical, and blunts the edge 
of fine feeling ; yet there is still, thank God, a corner 
of my heart soft and susceptible to the touch of 
pity. 

Presently the child threw her arms about Miss 
Dalrymple’s neck, and cried — 

“But we shall never be parted. You will stay 
with me always ? ” 

“ Yes, dear little one — I will stay with you 
always. Nobody shall part you and me,” replied 
Miss Dalrymple. 

Then a long sigh fluttered up from the child’s 
heart, and still clinging to her neck she pressed her 
cheek to this dear friend’s face, and gazed into the 
fire. 

And so I left them — opening and closing the door 
behind me in silence. 

“Where is Mr. Yeames?” I asked of the maid 
who waited in the hall. 

“ Up stairs in master’s room, sir,” she replied lugu- 
briously. 

Yeames was standing by his uncle’s bedside ; he 


I FALL OUT OF A TRAP. 


95 


thrust his hands quickly in his pockets as the door 
opened and I entered. No one else was there. 

I went in silence to the bed and looked down, 
Flexmore’s eyes were closed, but his jaw had dropped. 
The gaping mouth shocked me; and I turned away 
after a single glance. It was not thus I had hoped 
to look upon that face. 

“ You’re a bit too late with that will,” said Yeames, 
in a tone and with an expression on his face that 
implied a good deal — a tone of subdued jocularity, a 
cunning leer that bade me understand he knew why 
I hadn’t come earlier. “Why, what have you been 
doing?” he asked with surprise. “You’re a sight to 
be seen.” 

“ How long has he been gone ? ” I asked, indifferent 
as to my appearance. 

“ Oh, not above a quarter of an hour. Gertrude’s 
just gone down. She did all that was possible to 
restore vitality. But it’s all over this time. He 
won’t come back any more, as the song says.” 

“ Have you sent any one for Dr. Awdrey ? He 
ought to be here.” 

“ Of course he ought, but I suppose he’s got some 
interesting pauper to look after. I went for him, 


96 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


myself. The old boy was shocking bad when I 
arrived here after leaving you. I went over to 
Awdrey at once, but he was out; came back, and 
by that time nuncky was pretty near the finish.” 

“ Was he in a state of unconsciousness at that time 
or not ? ” 

“Well, he was conscious enough to ask for you, 
and wonder why you hadn’t turned up.” 

It occurred to me that Lynn Yeames, seeing his 
uncle’s precarious condition, had himself stretched 
that cord for me instead of going for Dr. Awdrey, 
in order to prevent my arriving in time to get 
Flexmore’s signature to the will. 

“ Do you know why I ‘ did not turn up,’ as you call 
it?” I asked sharply. 

“Not I ; but you’re not sorry, I suppose, that you 
did not get here in time ? ” 

It was on the tip of my tongue to retort “ Not so 
sorry as you may have reason to be, Mr. Yeames ; ” 
but I said nothing, for I wished to see how far this 
young man’s fatuity would carry him, and contented 
myself with thinking of the bitter punishment in store 
for him when he should find out how completely he 
had deceived himself. Certainly no self-deception 


1 FALL OUT OF A TRAP . 


97 


could be more complete than his. Assured of my 
venality, led away by his own hopes and over- 
confidence in the successful issue of his cunning, 
he apparently felt as sure of being possessed of his 
uncle’s fortune as though the thousands were already 
in his hands. 


CHAPTER IX. 


A PELLET OF PAPER. 

rjIHERE are some men who have so little self-re- 
spect that they do not keep up a decent pretence 
of virtue when the object is achieved for which it was 
first assumed, and Lynn Yeames was one of these. 

He already took upon himself the airs of master 
in that house, and with a grand patronage bade me 
come down and take a glass of sherry. I complied, 
for after the shaking I had received I was in no 
mood to refuse. 

We went into the sitting-room. Laure was lying 
on the couch holding the hand of Miss Dalrymple, 
who sat on a stool by her side. 

“ Oh, haven’t you got all that over yet ? ” Lynn 
asked petulantly, glancing at them. “ Sit down, 
Keene.” He touched the belL “ It’s absurd nonsense 


A PELLET OF PAPER . 


99 


to encourage morbid feeling and mawkish sentiment 
about a thing that’s been foreseen for weeks — an 

inevitable thing a sherry and biscuits for Mr. 

Keene.” The latter addressed to the servant who 
came to the door. “ I say it’s nonsense ! ” 

“Lynn!” said Miss Dalrymple, in a tone of 
mingled surprise, regret, and remonstrance. 

“I say it’s nonsense,” he repeated harshly, “and 
you ought to know it, Gertrude, with your ex- 
perience ; the child has been petted and pampered 
till she’s unhealthy. It’s exactly what my mother 
has maintained all along. However I shall alter all 
that — the girl will be packed off to a good, wholesome 
boarding-school as soon as the funeral is over.” 

Miss Dalrymple looked perfectly amazed by this 
extraordinary outburst ; she could not understand the 
meaning of it. I could well enough. 

Mr. Yeames had already thought better of his pro- 
posal to make penniless Miss Dalrymple a partaker 
in his fortune, and did not care how soon there 
should be a breach between them. It was this rather 
than any sudden fit of dislike to Laure — whom he 
detested always — which had led him to make this 
savage onslaught. 


100 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


Laure clung closer than ever to her only friend, 
and looked in terror at Lynn. Miss Dalrymple held 
her hand firmly. 

The servant brought in the sherry and I helped 
myself. Lynn waited till the servant was gone, and 
then, going to the window, said — 

“ I shall go over and fetch Awdrey. The certificate 
must be seen about at once. Go and get my hat from 
the library, Laure.” 

Miss Dalrymple rose. 

• “I said Laure,” said Lynn, turning upon them 
majestically. 

The child sprang up and sped from the room to 
fetch the bully’s hat; Miss Dalrymple stood with 
heaving bosom and close-pressed lips, and not a par- 
ticle of colour in her face. She could not speak 
before me. 

Lynn met her calm gaze with bent brows, and 
turned again to the window, flicking his handkerchief 
from his side pocket in a manner which by itself 
was insolent and offensive. 

But in doing this he flicked a little pellet of paper 
out. It fell against my toe, and I quickly covered it 
with my foot. The next moment he thrust his hand 


A PELLET OF PAPER . 


101 


sharply in the pocket from which he had flicked out 
this pellet, then shook his handkerchief and looked 
about the floor at his feet. 

“ What dreadful weather, Miss Dalrymple,” said I, 
setting down my glass. 

Lynn Yeames went hastily from the room, snatch- 
ing his hat out of Laure’s hand as he passed. 

I picked up the pellet of paper and slipped it into 
my waistcoat pocket. 

“ Oh, is this true, dear — is it true ? ” cried little 
Laure under her breath, as she joined Miss Dal- 
rymple. “ Will he send me away from you ? Will 
he part us?” 

“ No, my child,” said I, going up to them. “ Take 
this assurance from an old man who loves you for 
your father’s sake, and Nurse Gertrude for her own 
— you shall not he parted.” 

I left them. As I passed through the hall I 
caught sight of Lynn Yeames on the landing above 
with a lighted candle, looking about for the pellet 
of paper I was carrying away in my pocket. 


CHAPTER X. 


A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. 



I have in my office 
what I call my “ handy 
drawer” — a good large 
drawer that slides easily 
and fastens with a 
patent key, and divided 
into a score of com- 
partments. In this I 
put away anything that 
I think may come in 
handy at some future 
time, and an alphabetical index on a side of paper 
tells me at a glance in which nest to find what I 
want. I recommend a drawer of this kind to any one 


A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. 103 


of a practical and methodical turn of mind : he will 
have recourse to it more frequently than he antici- 
pates, and find it occasionally of inestimable value. 

Well, into this drawer, Nest Y, I put that pellet 
of paper after making a careful examination of it, 
and indexed it thus : — 

“ Yeames. — Pellet of paper jerked out of his pocket 
day of Flexmore’s death, Dec. 18, 188 — .” 

I shall have more to tell about this later on — a 
good deal more. 

In the evening of that day I saw Dr. Awdrey ; he 
came to me with a face as long as a fiddle. 

“ That’s an unfortunate accident that happened to 
you this afternoon,” he said. 

“ It might have been worse,” said I, feeling my 
nose. “ I came plump down on it. Wonder I didn’t 
break it.” 

“ Pm not speaking of that,” said he, putting down 
his hat and seating himself. 

“ Oh, you’re thinking of your property.” The poor 
old nag had put his shoulder out, and had to be 
killed, and both shafts of the gig were smashed. 
“ Well, if your old horse had not been thrown down, 

you would have been thousands out of pocket.” 

8 


104 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ You know what I mean : it is an unfortunate 
accident that prevented your arriving in time for 
Flex more to sign the new will as he wished.” 

“ There we differ. I do not regard the accident 
as unfortunate from that point of view.” 

“ Well, what is to be done about it ? The old will 
is virtually revoked.” 

“ But actually it stands as good as ever it was, and 
so it shall stand.” 

“ Supposing I refuse to accept the guardianship of 
Flexmore’s child.” 

“ You can’t refuse. Common sense will not let 
you ; humanity will not let you ; I will not let you. 
Have you seen Lynn Yeames since his uncle’s death ? ” 

“ No ; he had left Flexmore House five minutes 
before I arrived. I hear he called at my house, but I 
came by the other road. Since then I have been 
unable to find him anywhere.” 

“ That’s a pity. I should have liked you to see 
him as I saw him. He is so confident of being his 
uncle’s heir that he has thrown off all restraint, every 
pretence of decency, and shows himself the hectoring 
bully, the heartless rascal I have always believed 
him to be.” 


A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. 105 


“ Impossible ; ” he exclaimed, looking incredulously 
at me, who alone of all men he doubted and looked 
upon as misguided by prejudice. 

“ I tell you it is a fact. He was brutal to little 
Laure, and he insulted Miss Dalrymple before my 
face. Why ? Because now that he believes himself 
master of his uncle’s fortune, he wishes to break off 
his engagement with her. He has no more intention 
of marrying her now than he had the first day he 
came to Coneyford.” 

“ I can’t understand you — a man so clear in judg- 
ment on most things ” 

“ Get that nonsense out of your head, doctor. I tell 
you I am no more prejudiced against him than I am in 
favour of you. He’s a selfish, heartless scoundrel.” 

“ You will never make me believe that of Lynn 
Yeames.” 

“ He shall make you believe it of himself. Abstain 
from letting him know how Flexmore’s money is to 
be disposed of, and watch him between now and the 
reading of the will. He already talks of sending the 
child away to a boarding-school, and, as I tell you, 
reproved Miss Dalrymple before me for being too 
sympathetic and kind to her.” 


106 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


“ But why should he believe himself to be his 
uncle’s heir?” 

“ Because he fell into a trap, and was led to believe 
so by me. And I’ll tell you something else, doctor. 
He believed that this new will was to revoke an 
existing will in his favour ; and I am convinced that 
he stretched the cord that threw the trap over and 
delayed me, that this will might not be signed ; and 
nicely he has defeated his own ends by it. I’d for- 
give him for that if my nose had been broken.” 

“ I think I can upset that theory, at least,” said 
Awdrey. “ What time was it when you were thrown 
from the gig ? ” 

“About two o’clock, as nearly as I can reckon,” 
said I. 

“ Good. He left Flexmore House to fetch me at 
one o’clock ; he was at my house at half-past, and he 
waited there for me until ten minutes past two.” 

He had proved an alibi for Lynn, and I had to 
admit I must be in the wrong on this point. 

“ And so you are, I am sure, on other points re- 
specting him,” said the doctor. 

“We shall see that. Keep your mind unprejudiced, 
and watch that young man during the next four or 


A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. 107 


five days,” said I, as I opened the door to let him 
out. 

Unfortunately, this chance of clearing his mind 
was denied to us. 

The next morning, when I called at Flexmore 
House, I heard that he had not been seen since he 
left, shortly after my departure, to fetch Dr. Awdrey ; 
and in the course of the day I learnt that he had 
gone to London. This did not surprise me. “ He’s 
gone to see a London solicitor about this affair,” I 
thought; “and may he be bled pretty freely by my 
learned friends ! ,5 

Betimes on Thursday I called again at the house, 
for I had made up my mind to visit the inmates there 
every day, knowing how long and dreary the days 
must be for them in the darkened house, and that 
the child, at least, looked upon me as a protecting 
friend. Miss Dairy mple was bending over her work 
with a worn and anxious look upon her sweet face. 
Little Laure started up with a terrified expression in 
her eyes, as though she expected to see Lynn Yeames 
witharope in his hand come to haul her off toa board- 
ing school, as I opened the sitting-room door. Both of 
their poor faces lit up with pleasure when I said — 


108 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ It’s only I — the old lawyer — come to bother you 
for some papers.” 

Laure ran up, threw her arms round my neck, 
and kissed me ; and, still hugging me, she 
whispered — 

“ You don't forget what you promised ?” 

“No,” I whispered back. “No one shall take you 
away from Nurse Gertrude.” 

“Not Aunt Yeames, nor Cousin Lynn — not any- 
body?” 

“Not anybody, with a hundred Aunt Yeameses 
and fifty Cousin Lynns to back him.” 

“You are a nice old dear!” she said, giving me 
another kiss; and then she ran away laughing, to 
whisper to Miss Dairy mple all about our secret — at 
once a woman and a child. 

I gossiped for best part of an hour, raking up all 
the news of the village, for there’s nothing like 
trifling chat for people in trouble ; and then, when 
Laure went out of the room, I said — 

“ Well, my dear, have you had many visitors since 
I saw you last ? ” 

“ A few acquaintances and Doctor Awdrey — that 
is all.” 


A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE . 109 


She would not have said “ that is all ” if she had 
loved Dr. Awdrey. 

“ Mrs. Yeames, I suppose, has given you the 
benefit of a call ? ” said I. 

“No; she had the dressmaker there. She sent to 
say I might visit her if I liked, but Laure has a kind of 
— of antipathy, you know, and I could not leave her 
alone. Dear little Laure ! She is haunted night and 
day with a dread of being taken away from me.” 

“ A not unnatural dread, though a groundless one, 
I hope.” 

“ Yes,” she said, and took a few stitches in silence. 
“ Of course Lynn did not mean what he Said. We 
say things when we are worried and troubled that 
ought not to be taken seriously.” 

“ That is Doctor Awdrey’s opinion,” said I sharply, 
suspecting his influence in this defence. 

She flushed, and said quietly — 

“ It is my opinion also.” 

“ But it may not be Mr. Lynn Yeames’s opinion. 
What then ? ” 

“ Then I should try to make it his opinion,” she 
replied, smiling archly. 

I hold Thackeray’s opinion with regard to good 


110 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


women. Thackeray would have loved Nurse Gertrude. 
I saw that she was prepared to martyr herself, to 
sink her pride, to forget Lynn’s brutality to her, in the 
belief that the cunning of a good woman is superior 
to the headstrong purpose of a man, and that, by her 
subtle charming, she could lead him her way. A 
woman, if she has experience and intelligence, learns 
early man’s weakness and her own strength. 

“ Have you seen him or heard anything about him ?” 
I asked. 

“No ; he has not come back from London. I am 
anxious about him. I fear he is ill. I am sure he 
must have been ill on Tuesday ; he was not himself 
was he ? His manner was so strange. He was never 
like that before.” 

It seemed to me that if he were ill, the first thing 
he would do, being a selfish brute, would be to write 
and tell his sweetheart of his suffering. The moment 
a man of this kind feels not up to bullying point, he 
whines for sympathy. I know ’em. I thought it 
much more probable that Lynn had gone to London 
to spend some of his fortune in advance, and escape 
from the lugubrious condition of things at home 
whilst his uncle lay dead at Flexmore House. 


A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. Ill 


Of course I kept this belief to myself ; and 
promising to drop in again during the day, I left the 
house, and went directly to Mrs. Yeames’s villa. 

There was an overpowering smell of crape — to me 
a most abominable stench — right out in the passage ; 
and through an open door I caught sight of Mrs. 
Yeames and a dressmaker half buried in preparations 
for deep mourning. 

I was shown into a sitting-room, as pretentiously 
genteel and chilling as Mrs. Yeames herself, and 
there I waited till it pleased the woman to come to 
me. She waved me to a chair, after seating herself, 
without giving me her hand, for which I was grateful, 
though hitherto she had allowed me to take the tips 
of her clammy fingers. 

Her lofty air and patronizing smile showed that 
she participated in her precious son’s belief with 
regard to the heritage. 

“ I have called to see your son, Mr. Lynn, madam,” 
said I. 

“He is not hyah.” said she, with that peculiar 
pronunciation which your “ superiah ” person affects, 
and which to my ear is more ungrammatical and, 
being assumed, more vulgar and more offensive ten 


112 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


thousand times than a cockney cookmaid’s misap- 
plication of the letter “ h ” — “ he is not hyah. He is 
in London, where he has met with an accident re- 
quiring medical treatment which confines him to his 
room.” 

“ Can you give me his address ? ” I asked. “ I have 
business to transact with him.” 

“No, I cannot give you his address. I have 
received a wiah from him, in which he begs me to 
act for him in all matters of a business nature until 
his return.” 

“ The funeral arrangements have to be considered,” 
I observed. 

“ I should like a tomb ; not an ordinary grave — a 
brick tomb.” 

“ I do not know that 1 shall be justified in in- 
curring that expence.” 

“ That does not concern you, Mr. Keene. That is 
our personal affaiah. You will oblige me by leaving 
the arrangement of Mr. Flexmore’s obsequies entirely 
in my hands. We wish to spare no expense in mark- 
ing our respect to our deceased relative.” 

“ Very good, ma’am,” said I ; “ as you will.” And 
on my way home I called in on the mason who has 


A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. 113 


the monopoly of this business in his hands at Coney- 
ford, and gave him to understand that he had better 
make terms with Mrs. Yeames for cash down, as he 
might never get his money if he waited until she had 
heard Flexmore’s will read. He understood how 
matters lay, and, 1 believe, got his money in advance 
by making a reduction of thirty per cent. ; and thus 
Mrs. Yeames was let in for an outlay which she 
would never repay herself out of the slender legacy 
left her by my old friend. 

About three days after this, a client who had just 
returned from a business journey to the south of 
France dropped in to have a chat with me, and 
amongst other things he said — 

“ By the by, Keene, I crossed over with young 
Yeames.” 

“ When ? ” I asked. 

“ On the 15th — night service. He pretended not 
to see me, so I did not bother him. I know a man 
at such times as this doesn’t care for condolence and 
that sort of thing.” 

“ He was going on to Paris, I suppose ? ” I ventured 
to suggest. 

“ Oh, farther than that. I caught sight of him 


114 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


at the station, where the line branches off to 
Monaco.” 

“ You are sure of your fact ? ” I asked, though I 
had little doubt of it. 

“ I am as sure it was he as I am that you are 
before me now.” 

Now the 15th was the very day he had left Coney- 
ford for London. Was London not gay enough for 
him, that he must go on to Monaco for amusement ? 
One thing was certain : Mrs. Yearn es, to have received 
a telegram from him, must have known his where- 
abouts, and could not give me his address in London 
simply because he was at the other end of Europe. 
Why had she told me that lie ? Because she did not 
wish it to be known that her son had gone to Monaco, 
lest it might be inferred that he had gone there for 
pleasure ? That was the conclusion I came to. 

It never entered my head that he had got out of 
the country for prudential reasons, and that the cause 
of his precipitate flight was that little paper pellet 
which was lying quietly in my handy drawer. There 
are things which escape even the suspicion of a lawyer 
at times. 


CHAPTER XL 


THE MORTIFICATION OF MRS. TEAMES. 

J^RS. YE AMES found time to quit her dress- 
makers, her crapes, bombazines, and the rest 
of it, in order to visit the two poor souls at Flexmore 
House and worry them. 

First of all, she attacked Nurse Gertrude upon the 
subject of mourning. 

" Is it possible that you have not yet begun your 
mourning ? ” she asked, looking around her with a 
sniff, as if scenting the air for the smell of crape. 

“ Miss Clip is making our dresses ; they are to 
be home to-morrow/’ replied Miss Dalrymple. 

“Very injudicious. I always have the dressmaker 
in the house. You know then that an inferiah article 
is not substituted for the material you have bought, 
and that none of it is kept back. Also you can 


116 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


be certain that good work is put in and no machining. 
The cost is very much less, too. What with lining 
and trimmings, and one thing and anothah, I fear 
these dresses will be a very heavy expense.” 

“ Not more than I can afford to pay, I hope,” said 
Miss Dairy mple quietly. 

“ I hope you have chosen a fashionable cut for my 
niece’s dresses. I should have liked them to be 
like Sir Willoughby Chough’s little girls, or the 
Honourable Mrs. Blinker’s nieces. You must have 
noticed how very elegant and high class they are.” 

“ I do not think Laure imitated any one’s 
style.” 

“ Surely you have not suffered that child to choose 
her own style ? ” 

“ Yes ; Laure has very good taste in dress, and 
the dresses are for her.” 

“ She’ll be a perfect sight ! ” said Mrs. Yeames em- 
phatically, with a dab of her hand in the air. “ How 
very unfortunate ! If I had only thought of it a 
little earlier. Deah, deah ! They’ll all have to be 
altered of course when she goes to boarding-school.” 

“ But I am not going to boarding-school,” said little 
Laure desperately. “ I am going to stay always — 


MORTIFICATION OF MRS. YE AMES. 117 


ever, ever with Nurse Gertrude. Mr. Keene 
says so.” 

“ Mr. Keene knows nothing about it. Your 
guardian will settle such matters, and not Mr. Keene ! 
And little girls should speak when they are spoken 
to — not before. I’m afraid I shall have a great deal 
of trouble with you when you come to live with me.” 

“ But I’m not going to live with you — never, 
never ! ” exclaimed the child, screwing herself in 
terror against Nurse Gertrude, and holding her arm 
for protection. 

“We shall see about that,” retorted Mrs. Yeames, 
pursing up her lips and contracting her nostrils 
viciously. Then, turning to Nurse Gertrude, she 
said, “ Have you made any plans with regard to 
yourself, Miss Dalrymple ? Have you settled where 
you will go when you leave hyah ?” 

“No : it is impossible to settle anything definitely 
at present.” 

“ One thing there is which should certainly be 
done without delay. It ought to be intimated to 
the servants that their services will not be required 
after their month is up.” These were the same 
servants who had given warning during the brief 


118 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


term of Mrs. Yeames’s authority in the house, and 
who had one and all been re-engaged on her depart- 
ure. “ The house will he given up of course. 
Perhaps you would like me to tell them they 
must go ? ” 

“ No ; I am to consider my position here unaltered, 
and no change in the routine is to he made until the 
will has been read, Mr. Keene says.” 

“ Mr. Keene seems to be unduly interfering — to be 
overstepping the bounds of his — ah ! — function,” 
said Mrs. Yeames tartly. 

Whereupon little Laure, with the courage of 
desperation, declared I was a dear old man, and 
wouldn't let cook be sent away, or let any one be 
made unhappy. 

“ And you won’t, will you, dear Mr. Keene ? ” 
said the child, imploringly, to me when she and 
Nurse Gertrude had narrated this conversation to 
me. “ You’ll be just like the clever cat in Puss in 
Boots who got the ogre to turn from a lion into a 
mouse and then gobbled it up, won’t you ? ” 

“ Yes, my dear,” said I; “before the week’s out, 
I promise you I will make that bounceable party look 
very small indeed ; and she shall be so completely 


MORTIFICATION OF MRS. YE AMES. 119 


chawed up that you will never see anything more of 
her.” 

The day of the funeral came — and a sad day it is 
in my memory, for even a lawyer cannot bury an old 
friend without a pang of regret for the past that can 
never be renewed : a bitter yearning for the hand 
and the voice and the eyes that never again one shall 
clasp, and listen to, and look into ! 

But we must live for to-morrow, and not for 
yesterday ; and thus reflecting, I left my sentiment 
in the cemetery, and taking a good pinch of snuff to 
clear my faculties, I went back to Flexmore House, 
to get through my business there in a lawyer-like 
fashion. 

I expected that Lynn Yeames would be sufficiently 
well to come back for the reading of the will ; but 
he was not. However Mrs. Yeames was there with 
a telegram of regret from him (she had torn off the 
heading, but I found out from my young friend at 
the post-office that it came from Monaco), and 
herself prepared to stand as his representative ; and 
a fine monument of respectability she was in her 
crape. 

To her disgust I had up all the servants into the 
9 


120 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


room, indeed I had invited every one whose name 
was in the will. Dr. Awdrey was there, looking as 
if he were going to have his head cut off, and 
Miss Dalrymple, and little Laure. 

When I took my place at the head of the table, 
the child came and put her arm through mine ; but 
this would never do, so I led her back and placed 
her between Nurse Gertrude and Awdrey, and she 
was content to sit there, holding a hand of each, as 
being the friends she could best trust to after me. 

Then I opened the will, and in a dead silence I 
began to read it clearly and slowly. You might have 
heard a pin drop. After the usual preamble, came 
the legacies to the servants, whom Mrs. Yeames 
would have packed off with a month’s wages, and 
then began the sniffing and sighing and smothered 
exclamations of astonishment and pleasure as they 
learned that there was a £100 and a good suit 
of clothes to come to each of them out of the fortune 
of their kind old master. And when these were 
disposed of, I parqe to the Yeames’ bequest. 

“ To Mrs. Anna Maria Yeames, widow of my 
brother, Joseph Flexmore, I give and bequeath the 
sum of fiv^e pounds.” 


MORTIFICATION OF MRS. YE AMES. 121 


I looked at her over the top of my glasses as I 
read this. She folded her arms, closed her eyes, and 
assumed a look of injured dignity. I would have 
given as much as this bequest to have been able to 
look round and see how the servants (who hated her 
cordially) managed to conceal their feelings. How- 
ever I contented myself with reading on — 

“ To my nephew, Lynn Yeames stepson of the 
aforesaid Joseph Flexmore 55 — here I turned over 
the page, and glancing at Anna Maria found her 
eyes open, and her expression indicative of assured 
triumph and expectancy — “ I give and bequeath 
the sum of fifty pounds and my glass case of stuffed 
birds.” 

Lowering the will and looking over my glasses 
I said to Mrs. Yeames Flexmore — 

" As your son is not here, I will apprise him by 
letter of this bequest.” 

“That is not all, I am sure. Read on, if you 
please,” said the lady, with that peculiar dabbing 
of her hand in the air to which I have before 
referred. 

I bowed, and proceeded to read out in full the 
clause in which Flexmore constituted John Howard 


122 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


Awdrey, M.D., &c., sole guardian of his beloved 
daughter, Laure Constance Flexmore, and in re- 
cognition and -consideration of his service in the 
capacity of guardian and trustee, bequeathed to him 
the annual interest on such capital as remained 
after the payment of the foregoing aforesaid 
legacies, life annuity to myself of one hundred 
pounds, and all outstanding debts until the said 
beloved Laure Constance Flexmore should attain 
the age of twenty-one, when the whole estate, 
would revert to her. 

I paused here, and again looked over my glasses 
at Mrs. Yeames. 

The woman had risen to her feet ; she was white 
with passion. I saw she wished to speak, and 
waited. Her lips twitched convulsively; it was 
some moments before she could articulate. 

“ Do — do — do I understand,” she faltered, 
“ that he has left nothing to my son but fifty 
pounds ? ” 

“And a glass case of stuffed birds ; that is all,” 
I said. 

“ All the property, in fact, goes to Dr. 
Awdrey ? ” 


MORTIFICATION OF MRS. YE AMES. 123 


“ The bulk of the property goes to Dr. 
Awdrey, in trust for Laure Constance Flexmore, 
who inherits when she is twenty-one years of age. 
Until that time Dr. Awdrey will receive from 
me annual payment of all interest accruing from 
the estate in payment of service rendered as 
guardian of the child. There is a further clause 
providing for the appointment of a new guardian 
in the event of Dr. Awdrey’s death, and the 
reversion of the whole estate to Dr. Awdrey 
in case of the child dying before coming of age, 
and which I will now proceed to read.” 

“ Don’t trouble yourself — I don’t wish to hear it ! ” 
screamed rather than said Mrs. Yeames. 

“Madam,” said I, “I am here to read this will 
not solely for your pleasure.” 

“ Let me look at the signature of that will,” she 
cried, crossing quickly. 

“ There is the signature, duly witnessed,” I said, 
showing it ; “ and the date you see is the 4th 
September of last year.” 

“ Do you mean to tell me that this is the will 
he made last year ? ” she exclaimed. 

“I do, madam. Have you any reason to doubt it ? ” 


124 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“I have,” she said, and then stopped short. For 
how could she explain the means by which her 



son had possessed himself with the knowledge of 
the affair? She would have liked to proclaim me 


MORTIFICATION OF MRS. YEAMES. 125 


a scoundrel and a forger, as I believe she felt 
convinced that I was, but she had just strength 
enough to contain her passion. 

“ That will shall be contested,” she said. “ I will 
telegraph at once to my son. We shall put this 
into the hands of a trustworthy solicitor.” 

“That is the very best thing you can possibly 
do,” said I. 

She clenched her teeth, and shook her head at 
me with such fury in her face as I hope never 
again to see disfiguring the face of a fellow-creature; 
and then she turned her hack on us and marched 
out of the room with as much dignity as she could 
command. 


CHAPTER XII. 

THE DINGLE COTTAGE 

DR. AWDREY walked home with me from Flex- 
more House. 

“Well,” said I, when we had got a hundred yards 
on our way, “what do you think of Mrs. Yeames 
now ? ” 

“I cannot say I ever liked that woman, but I 
never thought she had such a violent temper. One 
might make excuses for her — for any one indeed 
who puts such an extravagant value upon money,” 
said he, in a tone of commiseration which seemed 
to me utterly misplaced. 

“At any rate” said I, “you’ll agree that it’s a 
mercy I was too late with that precious will, which 
would have handed over little Laure to the tender 
mercies of such a woman. Why, the poor child 
would have been brought up in the same money- 


THE DINGLE COTTAGE. 


127 


worship — if she hadn’t been killed by ill-treatment, 
which is the more likely.” 

“ Yes ; it could not be good for any child to he 
under the influence of such a woman. But Lynn, 
not she, was to have been Laure’s guardian.” 

“ Oh, they are a pair — like mother, like son,” said 
I impatiently. 

“ That is not true. Lynn would have done what 
is right by the child.” 

“ That’s not true, either,” said I: “ You admit it 
would be ill for any child to be under that woman’s 
influence. Well, how about Lynn, whom she has 
brought up ? ” 

“ His strength of character has happily saved him. 
He himself has frequently complained to me of the 
tendency of modern society to a vulgar adoration of 
money.” 

“ Hypocrite ! ” I exclaimed petulantly ; “ that’s 
what he is, and you’re a fool to he cheated by him. 
I tell you he would have handed the child over to his 
mother, and occupied himself solely with making 
ducks and drakes of the money. You’ll see what- 
sort of fellow he is before long. He’ll show the same 
cloven hoof that his mother has been kicking up for 


128 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


our observation to-day when he finds all his little 
air-castles blown over. You’ll see.” 

“We shall,” said he; “and now let us talk upon 
something we can agree upon.” 

“ Talk away,” said I, vexed beyond measure by his 
obstinate credulity. 

There was silence for a few minutes; then he 
said — 

“ Can you give me an idea about how much the 
estate will bring in ? ” 

“Yes,” said I; “I’ve reckoned it out. You may 
safely depend on an annual income of two thousand 
pounds for the next nine years. If you take my 
advice, you’ll live up to about seven hundred — that 
will keep you comfortably — and put by the rest as 
capital to draw upon after Laure conies of age.” 

He made no reply to this, but after walking a few 
yards in silence, he said — 

“I don’t think Miss Dalrymple wishes to leave 
Laure. I should be very sorry if she did.” 

“ Oh, that’s all right,” said I. “ She won’t leave 
the youngster — you may depend on that.” 

“ I’m very fond of children — especially fond of that 
dear little one ; but, of course, I couldn’t bring her up 


THE DINGLE COTTAGE. 


129 


properly myself. It would be cruelty to the child to 
try.” 

“Of course you couldn’t do it — alone,” I said 
pointedly. 

He shirked a direct reply to this hint, and once 
more there was a pause. 

“ That old house is not suitable for them,” he said 
presently; “it’s heavy and dull.” 

“ Just what I have been thinking. Sell it, 
Awdrey; sell it. I’ll soon find a buyer; and I 
know of the very place to suit you. What do you 
think of the Dingle ? ” 

“ That is a pretty little house : gay, and healthily 
situated. I like that fine wood at the back, and it 
has a good aspect. If that would suit them ” 

“ I’ll take them to see it to-morrow. They could 
go in at once.” 

“ I wish you would arrange that. At the same 
time you would greatly oblige me by making an 
agreement with Miss Dalrymple respecting a 
permanent engagement. You see, virtually, she 
will be Laure’s guardian.” 

“ Co-guardian with you ; that’s what old Flexmore 
intended when he made the will.” 


130 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ I know ; but the arrangement he had in view 
has been rendered impossible by later events.” 

“ Pooh, pooh ! Stuff and nonsense ! ” I exclaimed. 
“ You'll marry that girl. Not at once, of course ; 
but in about six months from now. That’s a certain 
thing.” 

He laughed ; but his laugh was anything but a 
gay one. 

“ Lynn won’t have her now he has no money,” I 
continued, “and she has nothing to give him but 
herself. And what’s to prevent you stepping in and 
making her your wife ? ” 

Again he laughed, but it was less pleasant than 
before ; and with a sudden transition to grave anger 
he turned upon me. 

“Whatever you may think of my friend Lynn,” 
said he, “ you must, at least, give Miss Dalrymple 
credit for loyalty and honour. You seem to think 
that every one is mercenary and heartless : that 
Lynn would abandon her because she is poor, and 
that she would accept me because I am rich. You 
do them both injustice. She is no poorer now than 
she would have been if Lynn had inherited this two 
thousand a year, and if he offered her marriage 


THE DINGLE COTTAGE. 


131 


when he expected to be rich, it would be only honest 
to offer to release her, finding he is poor. But will 
she release him for that reason ? No ! no ! no ! She 
will love him the more for being poor. And even 
were your insinuations verified — if he himself cast 
her off — do you think she would have so little self- 
respect that she could consent to bestow the hand 
rejected by another upon the first who asked her for 
it? No, I say — a thousand times no !” 

“ Well,” said I, “ if all the world had such fine 
sentiments and delicate susceptibilities as you 
possess, hang me if I see how marriages would be 
made.” 

With all my respect for Miss Dalrymple, I gave 
her credit for having a good deal more worldly 
wisdom than this Quixotish doctor. I felt pretty 
sure in my own mind that she had accepted Lynn as 
much from regard to Laure’s interests as to a romantic 
passion. However I did not feel at all comfortable 
about the future ; for, though I foresaw the course 
Lynn would inevitably take, I was anything but 
confident about Awdrey. You can place no de- 
pendence on a man of delicate feeling. He’s 
likely at any moment to upset the very best schemes 


132 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


a practical man ever devised. And this was my 
belief when I parted from the doctor. 

The next day happened to be particularly bright 
and cheerful, so I engaged an open fly and drove to 
Flexmore House. 

The moment Laure heard I had come to take 
them for a drive, she flew off to get her things ; and , 
taking advantage of her absence, I asked Miss 
Dalrymple if she had seen anything more of Mrs 
Yeames or heard from Lynn. She replied in the 
negative to both questions, the colour mounting to 
her cheeks through having to acknowlege Lynn’s 
neglect. 

“ Well, my dear,” said I, “ no news is good news 
where such people are concerned ; and I dare say we 
shall get on very well if we never hear any more of 
them.” 

She inclined her head slightly and with a certain 
dignity that seemed to say, "You are perfectly 
free to form what opinions you please,” and left the 
room. I know she was vexed, but whether with 
me, with Lynn, with herself, or all three, I leave 
psychological readers to settle for themselves. 

The Dingle lies about two miles from Coneyford. 


THE DINGLE COTTAGE. 


133 


It is a pleasant drive ; we had plenty of rugs to 
keep our legs warm, and the air was just fresh 
enough to redden the tip of Laure’s little nose 
and make her eyes sparkle. As for Nurse 
Gertrude, the pleasure of motion and breathing 
a brisk atmosphere quickly chased every sign of 
vexation from her pretty face, and the bright 
sunlight that fell upon it seemed reflected there 
in her smile. She had the courage and hope of 
right-thinking and right-doing people, and though 
I have frequently seen her brows crease and a 
quick flash in her eyes, those signs of anger or 
impatience ever faded quickly away. 

I beckoned to Laure, and when she bent over 
to hear the secret communication which children 
so delight to make and receive, I whispered — 
“ Was the ogre chawed up ? ” 

She nodded, laughing ; then she asked with 
the same secrecy — “ But what is to be done 
with me ? Am I going to live with Doctor 
Awdrey ? ” 

“ No ; he won't have you. He’s afraid you’ll 
be dipping your fingers into his bottle of 
leeches.” 


134 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


She thought this sally good enough to repeat 
aloud to Miss Dalrymple. 

“ As you certainly would ” I added, “ if you had 
not Nurse Gertrude to keep you out of mischief.” 

There was no sign in her face that she had 
ever contemplated being asked to live under his 
roof, so the hope that led me to make the 
suggestion was nipped. 

I bade the driver stop when we . came to the 
bridge on the little stream that runs through the 
Dingle ; and a pretty sight it was to see the water 
scampering down amongst the rocks in its course, 
with a tangle of dry reeds and brambles on either 
side, and here and there a tuft of sedge covered 
with ice glittering and sparkling in the sun as 
it bent before the current, the whole framed in 
with the overarching boughs of sturdy oak and 
lithe hazel. 

There was a side door to the garden near the 
bridge, so I proposed that we should go in and 
see what it was like, as I had, by a curious accident, 
the keys in my pocket. 

We went in, and followed for a little distance 
the course of the stream, where Miss Dalrymple. 



“MISS DALRYMPLE POINTED OUT WHERE THERE SURELY 
PRIMROSES IN THE SPRING . 99 


JO 


WOULT* HE 


136 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


who had a healthy love of nature and delight in 
discovering her treasures, pointed out where there 
surely would be primroses in the spring, and 
perhaps snowdrops and daffodils ; and thence 
we wound our way up and up through the pine- 
woods, in whose shade the white rime still lay on 
the brown needles, until at length we came to 
the cottage standing on the hillside, surrounded 
with a verandah, which in summer, Miss 
Dalrymple said, must be festooned with pretty 
creepers, for there were the stems all carefully 
cased up in straw. Standing there, we looked over 
a lawn, and the Dingle below, and a furze-covered 
stretch of down, where a quick eye even now 
detected some yellow bloom ; and beyond that 
through the Coombe, a triangular patch of blue sea 
fading away at the horizon into the pink mist 
that blended it with the blue sky above. 

“Oh, how lovely !” cried little Laure; but Miss 
Dalrymple could say nothing, but stood there press- 
ing the child’s hand, and gazing upon the scene with 
unspeakable delight. 

“ One of these keys ought to fit the front door ; let 
us go in and see what the house is like,” said 1. 


THE DINGLE COTTAGE. 


137 


And in we went ; and Laure threw open the shutters 
and let in the sunlight, bursting into exclamations of 
delight at every instant over the pretty parquet floor- 
ing, the light wall-paper, the gilding and colouring of 
the doors, the cosiness, and brightness, and cheerful- 
ness of everything. 

“ It’s pretty enough for grown-up dolls to live in,” 
she declared. 

“It’s pretty enough for something better than 
dolls,” said I. “ How should you like to live in it ? ” 

“All alone ?” she asked, with a sudden qualm. 

“ No ; with the cook in the kitchen, and Mary, and 
Jane, and Elizabeth, and the boy Bob, and Nurse 
Gertrude as well, if she could only be coaxed into 
staying with you.” 

The child caught hold of her dear friend’s hand, and 
then looked at me doubtingly, as if she could scarcely 
believe such happiness possible. 

“ But it won’t do,” I continued, “ unless there’s a 
place for cocks, and hens, and ducks, and a pony and 
chaise. Now, take these keys, and see if you can 
find them anywhere.” 

Off she rushed, and then, being alone with Miss 
Dairy mple, I said— “ Awdrey wants you to live here 


138 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


with little Laure. I know there’s a house for the 
gardener at the back, so you would not feel without 
protection. He wishes you to regard it as a per- 
manent engagement, and has left it to me to arrange 
about terms, being, of course, too delicate to mention 
such a subject himself.” 

“ I shall be only too happy to accept,” she said at 
once. 

“ Good ! ” thought I. “ She sees through Mr. Lynn, 
though the doctor may be blind, and has already 
decided that she shall not be his wife.” 

“ I could not expect anything better,” she added, 
in a sadder tone, yet firmly. “Doctor Awdrey is 
very, very good.” 

“ Yes,” I said ; “Awdrey is the best man I know 
— if it wasn’t for his abominable delicacy.” 

Miss Dalrymple smiled. 

“With regard to terms now, what shall we do 
about that ? ” 

“Anything you like,” she replied, still smiling. 
“ I have no “ abominable delicacy. * ” 

“ Yery well,” said I. “ We may as well continue 
the old terms, which seem to me quite liberal enough. 
All expenses will be paid— I should like you to keep 


THE DINGLE COTTAGE. 


139 


an account, and let me have it a week before each 
quarter day — and over and above I shall pay you the 
salary of one hundred pounds as hitherto.” 

She said that would meet her requirements amply, 
and I promised to draw up a memorandum of agree- 
ment, to be signed by Awdrey and her the next 
day. Just then Laure came rushing in breathless 
to say there was the dearest place for fowls and 
ducks, and the sweetest stable for two ponies, and the 
loveliest coach-house, with a darling little chaise in 
it already. 

“ Very well, then,” said I. “ Then the sooner you 
come and live here the better.” 


CHAPTER XIII. 


AWDREY PERSEVERES. 

J WAS drawing up the aforesaid agreement the 
next afternoon when Mr. Lynn Yeames was 
announced. I slipped the papers in a drawer, turned 
the key, and rose from my chair as the young mao 
was shown in. He had the decency to assume a 
limp, albeit he had come over on horseback. 

“ I want to see Mr. Flexmore’s will,*’ he began, after 
brusquely nodding a salutation. 

“ The will itself is not in the office,” said I ; “ but 
you can see the draft from which that will was drawn 
up.” And I fetched from a tin box that precious 
draft. 

He knew the sight of it at once, and, holding it in 
his hand, he looked steadily at me through his half- 





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142 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


closed eyes, with his lips firmly set, and his brows 
knitted as though he were saying to himself, “ You 
confounded old vagabond 1” 

“ Supposing I am prepared to swear that this is 
not Flexm ore’s last will.” 

“ In that case I might be compelled to prove that 
it is.” 

“ How would you do that ? ” 

It was useless to complicate matters, so I said — 

“ In the first place, there are the witnesses to the 
signature, and then there is Doctor Awdrey, whose 
evidence I could bring — if any evidence were re- 
quired.” 

“ Doctor Awdrey ! ” he exclaimed. “ Did he know 
that this will existed ? ” 

“ Certainly he did. It was in consequence of that 
knowledge that he induced the late Mr. Flexmore to 
decide upon making that second will, which I was 
prevented from getting duly signed.” 

“ Show me that second will,” he said, in a tone of 
authority. 

“ It is destroyed. If it were not, I do not think I 
should show it to you. If it were in your possession 
even, and you could prove that Flexmore intended to 


AWDREY PERSEVERES. 


143 


sign it, there could be no possible change in the result. 
There is no revoking the first will.” 

He nodded, still looking at me steadfastly with his 
half-closed eyes, his brows knitted, and his lips set. 
I suppose he thought to intimidate me. He didn’t 
succeed. 

“Now tell me,” said he presently, “ why you led 
me to suppose that this first will was antagonistic to 
me, and the second favourable. Tell me that.” 

“ Because,” said I, “ it is a professional rule to con- 
ceal one’s clients’ affairs from those who seek to dis- 
cover them, and because I saw no harm to my client 
in allowing you to form any conclusion you pleased, 
and by whatever means you chose.” 

That made him wince. 

“ That is the rule,” I continued, “ as regards a 
lawyer and his client. But there professional delicacy 
ends. If a lawyer is acquainted with the secret of a 
person not his client, he may conceal it or publish it 
as circumstances direct.” 

That completely disconcerted him — unduly, as it 
seemed to me then, for I was only thinking of the 
mean and underhand manner in which he had sought 
to learn Flexmore’s testamentary intentions. It 


144 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


never entered my head — I wish it had — that his 
anxiety related to that paper pellet he had lost. 

He looked at me, then at the table, as he flicked 
it with his riding-whip ; then at me again ; finally, as 
if uncertain as to the extent of my meaning, and to 
prove it, he said — “ Supposing I gave you a thunder- 
ing good horse-whipping, as you deserve, what would 
you do ? ” 

“ Bring an action for damages like a shot,” said I. 

He drew a long breath, and there was a visible sign 
of relief in his expression. 

“ But,” I added, “ I fancy you have lost enough 
over this affair, what with the expense your mother has 
taken upon herself, and one thing with another, to 
forego an expensive luxury of that kind.” 

“ You’re wanted, if you please, sir,” said my servant, 
coming to the door. 

I glanced round to see that there was nothing Mr. 
Lynn could pry into or take away during my absence, 
and seeing all safe, I left him. 

In my sitting-room I found Doctor Awdrey waiting 
to see me. 

“ I saw Lynn’s horse outside, and I dropped in to 
know if he were here,” said he. 


AWLREY PERSEVERES. 


145 


“ Yes ; he is in my office. We have been having a 
little chat,” said I. 

“ I should like to see him before he goes, if you 
don’t mind my waiting here.” 

“ Go in and see him at once,” said I. “ I have done 
with him.” 

He thanked me, and went into the office ; while I 
slipped into my dining-room, which, as I have said, is 
divided from the office by a half-glazed door, that 
intercepts sound so slightly that what takes place in 
one room is audible in the other. 

If any one thinks it is wrong to play at eavesdrop- 
ping — and a good many sensitive people do think so — 
let them remember that I am only a lawyer. I have 
no compunction to listening in a case of this kind. 

They had got through their first greeting when I 
reached the house, but, as I saw through the old 
green taffety curtains, they still held each other by 
the hand. 

“ A mere sprain ; that’s all. Painful enough at 
tirst ; just enough to keep me from running about, 
you know,” Lynn was saying, in his bluff, open tone. 

“ Why on earth didn’t you write a word or two to 
us ? ” asked Awdrey, 


146 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ Oh, I didn’t want to make a fuss about a trifle — 
especially at such a time — and you know what women 
are when there’s anything the matter with a fellow ? ” 
Lynn replied, throwing himself in a chair. 

“ Your silence made us think that the accident was 
not a trifle,” Awdrey said, half seating himself on the 
table and facing his friend. 

“ I see now that I was to blame. I’m sorry for it. 
That’s all I can say, my dear fellow.” 

“ I am sorry also. It must have troubled Miss 
Dalrymple : it would have offended an ordinary girl. 
Old Keene here doesn’t like you — the most extra- 
ordinary prejudice I have ever known ; I warrant he 
has put a bad construction on it, and done his utmost 
to set her against you. Indeed it taxed my ingenuity 
to find excuses for your neglect.” 

Lynn toyed with his riding- whip in silence for a few 
minutes (during which his quick brain had conceived 
a plausible means of escape), and then he said — 

“ Awdrey, old fellow, I must tell you all. I can’t 
keep a secret — at any rate, from you. I purposely 
stayed away — I was purposely silent.” 

“ Why ? Let us have the whole matter out from 
beginning to end.” 


AWDREY PERSEVERES. 


147 


“ Some months ago this old rascal here, Keene — for 
what purpose I cannot imagine — led me to believe 
that I was heir to Flexmore’s fortune.” 

“ He acknowledged as much to me.” 

“ Oh, he did ! I’m glad of it. Well, in the belief 
that I should before long be in a decent position to 
maintain a wife, I sought to win Gertrude — Miss 
Dalrymple. Then, on the day of Flexmore’s death I 
discovered the truth — that I had nothing to expect 
from him.” 

The barefaced effrontery of this lie nearly took my 
breath away. 

“I had been living rather extravagantly,” con- 
tinued Lynn — “beyond my means, in fact — relying 
on being able to recoup myself sooner or later, and 
then suddenly I realized that I was thrown upon my 
own resources, in debt, and incapable of providing 
the woman I loved with the home I had absolutely 
offered her a few days before. Of course I am to 
blame — I know that. I ought to have been prudent ; 
I ought not to have counted upon Flexmore’s gene- 
rosity ; I ought not to have offered my hand before 
I was assured beyond the possibility of doubt that I 
had enough to marry upon. But you know what I 
am — a confounded headstrong, impulsive, thought- 


14ft 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


less, reckless, thriftless, unhappy wretch ! ” His voice 
faltered, he covered his face with his hands, rose 
abruptly, stamping with impatience at his own weak- 
ness, and turned in silence to the window. 

It was not a bad piece of acting ; it took Awdrey 
in completely. He rose, went to the window, 
and, slipping his hand through the other’s arm, 
said — 

“ There’s nothing unpardonable in that, Lynn — 
nothing that she will not readily forgive.” 

“I know it, Awdrey, and that’s the worst part 
about it. I must break off the engagement, but I 
know not how with such a generous girl as that. I 
know what she will say when I tell her I am a beg- 
gar ; she will say, * No matter, I can wait till you 
are rich.’ Wait — good heavens ! I am in debt now — 
a penniless beggar I must remain. I haven’t the 
ability to gain fifty pounds a year, and never shall 
have. No; it must be broken off. I said that from 
the first. Do you know, I forced myself to affront 
her, that she might throw me over — I pretended a 
brutally cruel feeling towards dear little Laure, poor 
child ! ” (this with a tremor in his voice, the knave !) 
“ that Gertrude might think me unfeeling. I went 
off to London without a word of farewell, I refrained 


AWDREY PERSEVERES. 


149 


from writing one kind word —all with the same pur- 
pose. Don’t you see now ? ” 

“Yes; but all that must be made clear to her,” 
said Awdrev slowly. 

“ Made clear to her ? Is that the way to break otf 
this unfortunate engagement?” 

“No; but there is no necessity to break the en- 
gagement ? ” 

“ What do you mean ? Surely you wouldn’t have 
me ask her to wait till I grow rich ! Rich ! I, who 
never did a decent day’s work in my life.” 

“No ; you will not ask her that. She did not in- 
quire whether you were rich or poor when she con- 
sented to be your wife ; she will not refuse you now 
for any reason of that kind. You must explain your 
silence, and ask her to marry you at once. Listen to 
me, Lynn — I am not advising without reason. Flex- 
more wished you to be the guardian with Miss Dal- 
rymple of little Laure, and to take the interest of the 
money in trust for her until she came of age. By an 
accident that wish was prevented from being legally 
carried out ; but. virtually, you are as much entitled 
to the money as though the accident had not hap- 
pened. Miss Dalrymple has consented to take care 
of the child permanently — relieving me of a certain 


150 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


part of my duty. Legally I shall remain her guardian, 
and shall in fact exercise my function whenever a 
question arises respecting her welfare, but virtually 
she is Miss Dalrymple’s ward, and her services must 
be paid for. I shall settle upon her all that is paid 
me as interest arising from Flexmore’s bequest/’ 

“ But, my dear fellow, you are robbing yourself — 
you are carrying generosity beyond all the bounds 
of reason ! ” exclaimed Lynn. 

“No, I am doing nothing of the kind. I shall 
simply be carrying out Flexmore’s intentions, and I 
shall remain as rich as I have been. Whether you 
marry Miss Dalrymple or not, I shall settle the 
money on her. But now you know that you have no 
excuse for breaking off the engagement.” 

Did you ever read of heroism to beat this ? A man 
relinquishing fortune, and the fair chance of making 
the girl he loved his wife, from chivalrous considera- 
tion of that girl’s happiness, and a conscientious 
feeling of duty ! 

Those sponsors made a pretty good forecast at his 
character and disposition when they gave him the 
name of John Howard ; for I doubt if the great 
philanthropist was ever more loving to the good, 
more generous to the erring, or kinder to the weak. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


I TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 



I SHOULD like to know 
what you would 
have done, seeing 
an honest man — so 
honest as to be de- 
void of suspicion 
— bamboozled and 
cheated by a lying, 
subtle rascal on the 
other side of a half- 
glazed door with a 
taffety blind. If you are an ordinary person, with an 

ordinary love of truth and an ordinary hatred of deceit* 
11 


152 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


I’ll be bound you would have flung open that door 
and told simple Dr. Awdrey that Lynn Yeames was 
a liar and a cheat, and proclaimed all you knew about 
him and his motives ; but if you are like me, a wily 
old lawyer, you would have done nothing of the kind. 
For Dr. Awdrey believed that my prejudice against 
Lynn Yeames amounted to a mania ; I had no proof 
whatever to substantiate a charge against him, and in 
theabsence of proof Dr. A\vdre3 T would be fully justified 
in believing a trusted friend in preference to a biased 
lawyer. How could I prove that he knew nothing 
about the will before his mother telegraphed to him 
after the reading of it ? I could only declare that he 
did not know, he could declare that he did. He had 
ingenuity to invent reasons as good for his knowing 
the fact as those I could produce to show that he was 
ignorant of the real truth. In a case of hard swearing 
the judge must lean towards the side which seems 
least capable of duplicity, and it would go hard with 
the lawyer in such a case. 

These conditions decided me to leave the half- 
glazed door as it was, and to seek some more than 
ordinary means of discomfiting an extraordinary 
rascal. 


/ TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 153 


I felt sure of this — that Dr. Awdrey would insist 
upon Lynn going at once and telling his story to his 
sweetheart ; and it seemed to me that the best thing 
I could do was to go Flexmore House beforehand 
and prevent Mr. Lynn deceiving Miss Dalrymple as 
he had deceived Dr. Awdrey. 

“ Mrs. Guttridge ” said I to my housekeeper, who 
is a careful woman, and delivers messages correctly, 
<‘I can’t wait any longer; I don’t wish to disturb Dr. 
Awdrey and his friend, who seem to be having a nice 
little chat. If they ask for me you will say that I 
had an appointment to keep, but that I shall be at 
home from nine till twelve to-morrow morning.” 

With that I trotted off to Flexmore House as fast 
as my legs would carry me ; but there was plenty of 
time to think on the way and I had plenty to think 
about. 

How was I to warn Miss Dalrymple ? To tell her 
bluntly that her lover was a scamp would not do. 
Her love would only strengthen in defending him 
against his accuser. She had already given me proof 
of this. 

But did she still love him ? Had she ever really 
loved him ? I was inclined to answer no to both 



M ‘ if can’t wait any longer ’ ” 



1 TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 155 


questions. I believed that as yet she had really loved 
no one. Yet I was not sufficiently sure to feel that I 
could with safety speak openly on the subject. And 
that is why I made up a fairy story — I could never 
have told it without premeditation — as I trotted on ; 
yes, a fairy story — a pretty occupation for a lawyer, 
you will say. 

They saw me, Nurse Gertrude and little Laure, 
from the drawing-room window as I came up the 
gravel path, and the child darted off to open the door, 
and both welcomed me with smiles on the threshold. 

“ We’ve been hoping you would come, and expect- 
ing you all the afternoon,” said Laure. “ We want to 
know when we are to pack up, and what to pack.” 

« I’ll tell you all about that as soon as I’ve warmed 
myself by the fire,” said I. “And warm myself I 
must, for I’m as cold as the ‘ Lonely Duckling ’ in the 
fairy story.” 

You see I lost no time in leading up to my 
subject. 

“ You mean the ‘ Ugly Duckling’ — I’ve read about 
it in Hans Andersen’s ” 

“ No ; I mean the ‘ Lonely Duckling,’ not the * Ugly 
Duckling,’” said I. 


156 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“I don’t know that story. You shall tell it to 
me while you are warming yourself.” 

“So I will,” said I, readily, for that was my 
purpose. 

And after talking to Miss Dalrymple about the 
weather I took the arm-chair Laure had drawn in 
front of the fire, and rubbing my hands I pretended 
to be vastly comforted by the warmth — though, to 
tell the truth, I was not a bit cold after my quick 
trot. 

Nurse Gertrude seated herself at the chimney side, 
and Laure nestled against her shoulder, and a very 
pretty group they made in the twilight, with the 
glow of the fire upon their faces and hands. 

“Tell me about that lonely duckling now,” said 
the child ; “ this is just the time for a story.” 

“Yes,” said I, “there couldn’t be a better time for 
it. Well, this duckling was a poor, miserable, half- 
fledged, helpless little thing, out alone on a common, 
and it kept standing on tiptoe, flapping its little 
wings and crying ‘ quack, quack,’ in the most piteous 
manner possible, for she was very hungry and very 
cold. I must tell you it was a little duckling, and 
not a drakling, which accounts for her being particu- 



“a vf.ry r re tty group they made 




158 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


larly helpless and miserable in these circumstances. 
But it was no use her standing on tiptoe, for it did 
not enable her to see farther than the end of her 
beak — ducklings being by nature short-sighted — 
and it was no use flapping her wings, for they were 
not strong enough to fly with, and there was no one 
near to hear her cry ‘quack, quack/ and take pity 
on her. So she waddled on a little further until 
she ran smack up against a cocoanut, who was too 
intent upon business to get out of her way.” 

“ What was the cocoanut doing ? ” asked Laure 

“Nothing; but he thought he was doing a good 
deal. That’s the way with cocoanuts.” 

“ ‘ I beg your pardon, sir,’ said the little duckling, 
humbly, ‘ I’m very cold and hungry ; could you give 
me something to eat, and put me under your wing 
for the night?’ 

“Now, the cocoanut was not a bad sort of fellow 
though he’d worked himself bald, and was terribly 
hard and dry outside. Some people thought he was 
like that all through, and there was nothing in 
him; but they were mistaken, for there was some 
milk inside him, and that was the milk of human 
kindness; so he replied — 


I TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 159 


“ * I’m very sorry, my dear, but I have moulted all 
my feathers, and I have so much business on hand 
that I can’t spare time to look for food. However, 
if you go on a little further you’ll find a sausage 
who’ll help you, for he’s full of goodness, great fat 
lumps of goodness, and he’s very soft, and if he can’t 
sit on you himself he will never rest till he’s found 
some one who will.’ 

“ Then the little duckling waddled on more hope- 
fully than before till she ran against the sausage, 
who was standing on end dreaming with delight 
that he was frizzling in a frying-pan for somebody’s 
benefit. He was ready to burst with goodness, and 
when he felt the duckling’s beak strike him in the 
middle he thought it was the cook running a fork 
into him, and he spluttered in his sleep, ‘ Turn me 
over, and brown me on the other side.’ With that 
he awoke, and, seeing the duckling, he pulled himself 
up straight in his skin and begged her to tell him 
if there was anything in the world he could do for 
her. The duckling told him what she wanted 
and the sausage gave a great sigh, because he 
felt he was too .big for the duckling to swallow 
whole, and he hadn’t the power to cut himself up in 


160 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


bits, though he was ready to sacrifice himself for 
anybody.” 

“ What a stupid old sausage he was,” said 
Laure. 

“ That’s what the cocoanut thought; but he was 
so hard that he couldn’t be expected to sympathize 
greatly with anything soft. However, the sausage 
was of some use, for he called a guinea-hen, who was 
only a shade less soft than himself, and very warm 
under her feathers. She undertook to take care of 
the duckling at once, and soon scratched and picked 
up a supper for her, after which she tucked the little 
duckling under her wing and watched over it with 
open eyes all night. Then in the morning she 
plumed the little thing’s feathers, and took her for 
a walk in the sun, which had such a beneficial effect 
on her that she looked quite a nice little creature ? 
and the hen was as proud of her as if she had been 
her own chick. As for the little duckling, now that 
she was warm and dry and well cared for, she was 
quite content, and resolved she would never, never 
stray away from the kind guinea-hen.” 

“ That is not all, is it ? ” cried Laure, at this 
j uncture. 


/ TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 161 


“ Oh, dear no ! We haven’t come to the fox yet,” 
said I. 

“ There was a fox then, eh ? Oh, I don’t like him.” 

“ Nor do I. What is worse, there were two of them 
— an old vixen fox, and a young dog-fox.” Miss 
Dalrymple looked into the fire gravely. 

“It was the vixen who first found them out,” I 
continued. “ She was going over the downs one 
morning, as lean and hungry as could he, when 
she suddenly stopped and sniffed the air. ‘I smell 
duckling,’ said she ; and then, creeping on a little 
further, she licked her skinny chops, and said, ‘I 
smell guinea-fowl.’ So she crawled on till she spied 
the two basking in the sun, as happy and unsuspect- 
ing as the old sausage hard by. But there stood the 
cocoanut, and the old vixen didn’t like the look of 
him. She couldn’t make him out at all, because cocoa- 
nuts are not often seen on the downs. So she slinked 
back to her hole, where the young dog-fox was yawn- 
ing the top of his head off. 

“ ‘ Don’t do that, you’ll disfigure your pretty face,’ 
said the old vixen. 

“‘I’ve got nothing else to do,’ said the young 
dog-fox. 


162 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


cc c I’ll tell you what you can do/ said the old vixen. 

* There’s a guinea fowl and a young duckling on the 
downs; go and entice them home here, and we’ll 
pick their bones together : there’s a sausage also 
— you might bring him home too, though I don’t 
know whether he’s very digestible; but, whatever 
you do, be careful of that brown thing like an over- 
grown egg, for I’m half afraid he’s a gin in disguise, 
or perhaps a new kind of fox-hound.’ She alluded 
to the cocoanut. ‘ You’ll have to be very careful 
and exceedingly cunning/ added the old vixen, in 
conclusion. 

“The young dog-fox promised to be as sly as 
possible, and the vixen suffered him to go alone, 
for she had the greatest confidence in his ability 
as a fox. So off went the dog-fox, and when he 
came in sight of the guinea-hen, he put on the most 
innocent air in the world. He would have liked to 
pounce on the pair then and there, but he remembered 
what his mother had said about the new breed of 
fox-hound, and liked the look of the cocoanut no 
better than she did. Besides, he was not quite sure 
that the hen and duckling were real; they might 
only be put there as a bait to lure him into a trap. 


I TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 163 


* However/ thought he, ‘ if I can only get them away 
from this place, we’ll soon see whether they’re real 
or not by the cracking of their bones/ He took a 
roundabout way, and coming up to them, grinned 
from ear to ear as he said ‘Good morning.' 

“ At the sight of his teeth the little duckling ran 
under the guinea-hen who bristled up her feathers, 
and looked as if she would call on the cocoanut for 
assistance. 

“ ‘ Don’t be alarmed,’ said the dog-fox, blandly, ‘ my 
intentions are strictly honourable. I only came to 
have a little rational conversation. I know I’m 
a fox, but I assure you I’m not foxy. My exterior 
may be unprepossessing, but I’m only a fox superfi- 
cially, indeed. I think of turning myself inside out 
to show that I’m more like a turtle dove than any- 
thing else. What do you find to eat here?' 

‘“Not ducklings,’ retorted the guinea-hen, pointedly. 

“ ‘ Well, I’m glad of that. I hate eating duckling, 
other foxes are partial to them : even my mother 
who is a kind-hearted old vixen, might eat duckling 
at a pinch. I own that in my early days, when 
I knew no better, I did nibble a little bit of one 
myself. But I’ve growm out of that, being only a 


164 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


fox externally. I should like to live on barley and 
soaked bread, and stuff of that kind. One sees what 
a beneficial effect upon the mind such diet has. I 
quite believe that after I bad got through a peck 
of barley and a quartern loaf, I should be quite 
a guinea-fowl/ 

“ ‘ Do you, indeed ? * said the guinea-hen, who was 
highly flattered by this compliment. 

“ ‘ Oh, upon my word, I’m sure of it,’ replied the 
dog-fox; ‘ask my friend the sausage here what he 
thinks on the subject.’ 

“ Now, the sausage, who would believe an addled 
egg to be good until it was broken, replied : ‘ I 
should be very sorry to say that a fox could not be- 
come a guinea-fowl if his heart is good ; and if this 
gentleman says that his heart is good, it would be 
very wrong of us to treat him as if his heart were bad. 
His manner is certainly more fowl than fox.’ 

‘ “ Oh ; I should be a perfect fowl if I could only 
fly, and I’ve not the slightest doubt I could learn 
the art in a brace of shakes, if you would only 
give me a few lessons,’ said the dog-fox, with the 
sweetest bow to the guinea-hen. The guinea-hen 
was more pleased than ever with this testimony to 


1 TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 1G5 


her influence. She thought he must be good to say 
such nice things, especially as the sausage believed 
in him quite as much as she did. 

‘“Won’t you come for a walk with me, and give 
me a lesson ? ’ asked the dog-fox, seeing her smile 
‘you can bring your little duckling with you.’” 

“ But she didn’t go, did she ? ” asked Laure in turn. 

“You’ll see presently,” said I. “The guinea-hen 
was much excited, but she was too prudent to go 
at once. However, she promised she would think it 
over, and let the dog-fox know next day. Where- 
upon, the dog-fox, not to alarm her by seeming too 
anxious, made a most polite bow, and went off, 
trying to look as much like a guinea-fowl as possible. 
Now he was just passing the cocoanut when he 
heard a voice say — 

“ ‘ Mind the bones ! 9 

“ He looked round in surprise, and seeing nothing 
but the cocoanut, he said — 

“ ‘ I beg your pardon, did you speak ? 9 

“ ‘ Yes,’ replied the cocoanut. ‘ Mind the bones 
don’t stick in your throat and choke you.’ 

“ ‘ What bones ? ’ asked the dog-fox, astonished. 

‘“The fish bones, to be sure,’ said the cocoanut. 


1C6 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


“ ‘ What fish boDes ? ’ asked the bewildered 
dog-fox. 

“ ‘ Why, the bones of that sprat that the penny 
hen is sitting on/ replied the other. 

“ ‘ Sprat ! Penny hen 1 * exclaimed the dog-fox. 
‘Upon my word, I don’t understand you.’ 

“‘That’s not surprising/ retorted the cocoanut ; 
*‘ for you’re such a fool you’ve mistaken a sprat for a 
duckling and a penny hen for a guinea-hen. That’s 
the way with you clever foxes, you’re always getting 
into some trap or other.’ 

“ Off went the dog-fox as fast as he could trot. On 
the road he encountered the old vixen. ‘ You’re a 
clever old dear, you are ! ’ he cried angrily, ‘ to send 
me after a guinea-hen and a duckling, when there’s 
nothing there but a sprat and a penny hen/ 

“ And away he pelted to seek something more 
toothsome, and forget as quickly as possible all about 
poor guinea-hen who was flattering herself with all 
sorts of pleasant visions with regard to the dog-fox 
she might transform into a guinea-fowl.” 

“ Ah, that was a good thing,” said Laure, clapping 
her hands. “That was a nice old cocoanut — very 
clever too, I think, don’t you ? ” 


I TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 167 


“ Oh, I have the highest opinion of his ability/’ 
I replied. 

“Well, as soon as the dog-fox was gone, the old 
vixen started off to see what all this meant ; and it 
was not long before she discovered the real state 
of the case, for there was the guinea-hen looking a 
little anxious and disappointed to be sure, hut a real 
guinea-hen for all that, and not a penny hen; and 
as for the duckling she was fatter and better-looking 
than ever. The only difference to be seen was in 
the condition of the sausage ; he looked flabbier and 
paler than before, and I’ll tell you how that came 
about. He was so anxious that the duckling should 
get fat, and that the guinea-hen should have no 
trouble to seek food for her, that he was shaking 
himself out of his skin that she might have plenty 
to eat.” 

“ Oh. that stupid sausage — I’ve no patience with 
him 1 ” said Laure. 

“No, more have I, my dear,” I said. “But it 
pleased the old vixen mightily, for she saw that there 
would be a better picking than ever on the duckling. 
So away she scampered with her nose well out, 
sniffing the air till she got the scent (and a very 
12 


168 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


nasty scent it was, too ! ) of master dog-fox, who was 
prowling round a yard in which there were dozens 
of fine fat geese. 

“'Come away from there/ cried the old vixen, 
'you are only wasting your time and losing an 
opportunity that does not often present itself. I’m sur- 
prised at you, a dog-fox, allowingyourself to be cheated 
by a cocoanut; but those foxes who are readiest to 
deceive others are only too prone to be themselves 
deceived. Go back and get that duckling before 
she’s snapped up by some one else, and don’t listen 
to anything the cocoanut may tell you about sprats 
and penny hens. If you doubt my word, ask the 
sausage, who is too much of a fool to deceive any 
one but himself.’ 

“Off went the dog-fox with his tail between his 
legs, for he was ashamed to think he had been over- 
reached by a cocoanut. 

“But at the same time he was not disposed to 
disregard that warning about the bones, for there 
was nothing he dreaded so much as being tricked 
himself. So you may be sure he went to the sausage 
first before inviting the guinea-hen to come with him 
a second time. 


I TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 169 


“ ‘ Good-morning, sausage/ said the dog-fox ; * you 
don’t look quite yourself this morning/ 

“ 4 No/ replied the sausage; ‘ there’s not much left 
of me but the skin. There’s my head, to be sure — 
that’s tied with a bit of string to my neck ; but I’ve 
shaken out pretty well all the rest. I can feel that 
my heart is left inside ; I’d shake that out, but I 
don’t think any one would take the trouble to pick 
it up/ 

“ ‘ Dear me, you were very plump when I last saw 
you/ said the dog-fox. ‘What’s become of all the 
nice lumps of fat?’ 

“ ‘ Oh, the duckling has picked them all up/ 
replied the sausage cheerfully, ‘pretty darling, and 
she looks more like a Michaelmas goose than a duck- 
ling after it/ 

“‘You couldn’t possibly mistake her for a sprat, 
could you ? ’ asked the dog-fox slyly. 

“The sausage would have laughed at the idea, 
but there was nothing left in him to laugh with; 
so he only shook his head seriously, and said — 

“ ‘ No, she’s not a fishy duck even, but just the 
tenderest, sweetest, juiciest ’ 

“ The dog-fox couldn’t wait to hear more, but bolted 


170 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


off, slobbering at the mouth as he thought of the 
picking in store. However he wiped his jaws and 
put on a decent air when he caught sight of the 
guinea-hen and the duckling, and going up to them 
with a cheerful air, he said — ‘ Good-morning, 
dears; I’ve come to take you for that walk we 
talked about the other day/ 

“But the guinea-hen, although she was secretly 
very pleased to see him come back, drew herself up 
with dignity and asked why he had not kept his 
appointment and called the day before yesterday 
as he promised; whereupon the dog-fox told her 
first one fib and then another fib, and went on piling 
up fibs until at length the guinea-hen thought that 
surely there must be one genuine excuse amongst so 
many. And after all she did not dislike the dog- 
fox, and it was only her pride he had wounded by his 
neglect, and she was too kind-hearted to bear malice. 
‘Besides,’ she said to herself, ‘he’s only a fox at 
present ; but if I can only educate him into a guinea- 
fowl he will never offend again/ 

“ So she called the duckling to her side, gave her 
arm to the dog-fox, and went off with him to a 
place where he said she could teach him to fly. The 


I TELL A STORY WITH A MORAL. 171 


sausage blessed them as they went off, for he had 
achieved the object of his benevolent wishes, and 
feeling he could do no more shrivelled up. The 
dog-fox did not trouble himself to take his young 
friends home to the old vixen, but just gobbled up 
the little duckling on the way, and left not a scrap 
of her but a few feathers and a few bones.” 

“ But that’s not all,” said Laure, as I came to a 
stop. 

“ That’s all I know about the duckling.” 

“ But the poor guinea-hen, what Became of her ? ” 

“Some say he gobbled her up also, others that 
he had no appetite for her after eating the duckling, 
and left her to break her heart.” 

“ Oh, but a story shouldn’t end like that.” 

“ No ; but stories will end like that when sausages 
and guinea-hens put faith in foxes who pretend 
they can turn themselves inside out.” 

“ But the old cocoanut — why didn’t he interfere ? ” 

“ I don’t know ; perhaps he was too busy— perhaps 
he feared his warning might be taken as an imperti- 
nence by the guinea-hen; what do you think, Miss 
Dalrymple ? ” 

Miss Dalrymple had been looking gravely in the 


172 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


fire during the course of my narrative — at least, when- 
ever I glanced at her; but now she raised her eyes, 
and, looking me in the face, said with her calm air 
of self-possession — “ He might have been silent because 
he thought her too foolish to profit by advice then 
she added, “If she were not wise enough to take 
care of herself it is very probable that she would be 
silly enough to regard a timely warning as an 
impertinence.” 

Just at that moment there was a sound on the 
hard path outside that attracted Laure’s attention, 
and looking from the window she cried — “ Oh, dear ! 
oh, dear ! Here comes that horrid Mr. Lynn Yeames ” 

“ I dare say he has not come to see us, my dear,” 
said I, “ so we will go in the next room and see 
about the packing.” 

Nurse Gertrude rose from her chair and held out 
her hand to me, and as I pressed it in mine we 
looked fairly into each others eyes, and I saw in 
the expression of hers that she was neither unwise 
nor ungrateful. 


CHAPTER XY. 


MR. LYNN YEAMES PROVES HIMSELF BUT A SECOND- 
RATE DECEIVER. 

T GATHERED up my hat, great coat, comforter, and 
**■ stick, and tucking them under one arm and little 
Laure under the other, slipped into the adjoining 
room, where we shut ourselves in, just as Mr. Yeames 
was admitted to the drawing room by the other 
door. 

I would have given anything to know what was 
taking place there; but I could not well put my 
ear to the keyhole in the presence of little Laure, 
so I had to content myself with the hope that the 
moral of my fable would enable Nurse Gertrude to see 
through the wiles of her crafty visitor, and give her 
strength to defeat them. It was exasperating to hear 


174 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


the murmur of voices and not to distinguish what was 
being said ; however I learnt later on from a certain 
source what took place in this interview, and I will 
set it down here as if I had seen and heard all — which, 
in my mind, I certainly did when the mere facts 
of the case were made known to me. 

Standing by the door as he closed it, Lynn made 
a grave inclination of his head expressive of respect, 
contrition — anything you like ; then he stepped for- 
ward hastily with his hand out, his head erect, his 
chest thrown forward, in a manly, honest way. She 
put her hand in his. 

“ Can you forgive me ? ” he asked, holding her hand, 
and speaking in that rapid, full undertone that is 
supposed to express earnest anxiety. “ Gertrude ! ” 
he added, with a tender inflection, putting forth his 
left arm to take her by the waist. 

Nothing succeeds like audacity with certain women; 
but Gertrude was not of that set, and, quietly shrink- 
ing to avoid his touch, she withdrew her hand and 
seated herself with the slightest deprecatory movement 
of her head. I can see that graceful, dignified 
movement as I write — a kind of “ no-thank-you ” 
movement. 


A SECOND-RATE DECEIVER. 


175 


With a deep sigh Lynn dropped his hands by 
his sides and sank into a chair. 

u I ought to have spoken out at the very first, I 
know that,” he said, in the tone of a man candidly 
admitting an amiable weakness. “I ought to have 
given you an explanation; but I was beside myself 
that morning.” 

“ And as you have not offered any explanation 
since I am to suppose that you have been beside 
yourself rather over a week,” said Miss Dalrymple’ 
with sympathy in her voice. 

The fellow had not the slightest sense of humour, 
and took her sarcasm seriously. 

“Indeed I have,” he said, with another sigh. He 
must surely have thought all women fools. 

“Then I think a little apparent eccentricity of 
conduct must certainly be forgiven ; ” and so, as if she 
had dismissed the subject, she asked in a tone of 
ordinary civility, “ And when did you return ? ” 

“ Oh, I — er — came back this morning,” replied Mr. 
Lynn uncomfortably. 

“You have seen your mamma, of course ?” 

“ Yes ; I had to take my traps home, you know, 
and get a tub after that beastly journey.” 


176 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ To say nothing of giving your mamma some sort 
of explanation, she must have been very anxious 
about you/* 

“ Yes ; the mater seemed to be a bit worried and 
anxious.” 

“Dr. Awdrey has asked frequently after you. I 
suppose you have not had time to call upon him ? ” 

“No — that is, yes; I spotted him coming along.” 

“ How very fortunate. Mr. Keene has been in- 
quiring about you. Of course you have not seen 
him?” 

Not knowing how much she knew, he had to admit 
the fact that he had seen me also. 

“ Er — yes, I have ; had to call upon him on a 
pressing matter of business, you know.” 

“Then, now I suppose you have satisfied nearly 
everybody’s curiosity. Isn’t it a great relief to 
you ? ” 

The young man bent his head and looked on the 
ground. He couldn’t stand chaff; but he had to 
make the best of it now — perhaps consoling himself 
with the reflection that he would not stand it after 
their marriage. I can imagine him promising himself 
bo break her in and bring her to meek submission in 


A SECOND-RATE DECEIVER. 


177 


the future. Pity those poor souls who marry a bully 
they have teased beforehand ! 

“ I think this is scarcely a time for badinage,” said 
he, after a pause, still looking on the ground and 
tracing the pattern of the carpet with the lash of his 
whip. “ I know I am not perfect ; but you must admit 
that allowances should he made for a fellow under 
the influence of — of emotion.” 

“I am willing to admit that a man under that 
condition is not responsible for his actions — is that 
enough ? ” 

“ If you admit that, what am I to understand by 
your present attitude ? You seem to forget what 
took place before I went away.” 

“ But I do not. You made me an offer of marriage, 
but am I wrong in thinking that you made that under 
the influence of emotion ? I absolve you from respon- 
sibility for action under that condition. May I not 
suppose that you were beside yourself when you made 
that proposal, and overlook the mistake as readily 
as that you have committed since ? ” 

He was not quick enough for this sort of fencing, 
he only felt safe at a heavy cudgel kind of argument, 
and he fell back on it now. 


178 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


“ It was not a mistake, Gertrude — I loved you then 
as I love you now ; I have come here this afternoon 
to ask you again if you will have me, faulty as I 
am — yet an honest fellow, thank heaven ! — and be 
my wife ? ” 

Nurse Gertrude was not greatly moved with this 
speech, which had very little appearance of depth and 
sincerity in it, despite the quavering of that manly 
voice, and a good deal of what he himself might 
have called “side” 

“ May I ask why you have thought it necessary to 
ask me a second time ? ” she asked, trying to fix his 
shifty eyes, and learn the truth from them. 

“Well, your manner seems to imply that you 
consider the engagement broken off. ” 

“I did think it broken off. Had I not reason to 
think so ? ” 

“ Oh, yes ; the way I spoke to you and little Laure 
was unpardonable.” 

He paused, and looked down again to escape from 
her fathoming eyes. He had probably thought that 
there would be little difficulty in his way, and that he 
could just reconcile Gertrude, if she should resent his 
silence, with a few words and a kiss or two, and 


A SECOND-RATE DECEIVER. 


179 


without going into any more vexatious explanation 
than the mere avowal of manly weakness under trying 
circumstances. Dr. Awdrey had told him to confess 
the truth, and conceal nothing, adding that a woman 
would forgive the man she loves anything except 
duplicity. But Lynn, in his own conceited, pig- 
headed way, had fully relied on his own cleverness ; 
his contempt for women in general disposed him 
to tell them no more than was necessary. He would 
rather have avoided an explanation, which, though 
it presented a certain attraction in being untruthful, 
would require a good deal of bolstering up to support 
his assumption of honesty and generosity. However 
he had bungled so disastrously in his own attempt, 
that he saw no escape from his dilemma but by 
acting now on Awdrey’s suggestion. 

“The fact is,” said he, changing his tone with a 
slash at his leg, “ I was purposely brutal to little 
Laure and you, I wished you to take offence and 
relieve me from the engagement.” 

“That is what I thought — it was the only con- 
struction I could put upon your behaviour,” said she. 

“ I dare say you wonder what my reason was. I 
will tell you* I can’t conceal the truth, and I know 


180 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


well enough that there’s nothing a loving* woman 
will not forgive, except duplicity.” 

A new warmth glowed in Gertrude’s heart. She 
liked those words; they were good and true — it 
never struck her that they might be Dr. Awdrey’s. 

“ I knew that through Keene’s delay I was ruined 
— that I had nothing whatever to expect from my 
uncle’s will. I knew that I must no longer cherish 
the thought of making you my wife, in debt and 
penniless as I was, and — but there, you can imagine 
the rest.” 

“ You wanted to give me the opportunity of break- 
ing the engagement, before it might appear that 
our separation was due to mercenary considerations 
on my part. Oh, that was generous ! ” exclaimed 
Nurse Gertrude, carried away by her own impulsive 
and generous recognition of an unselfish, nay, a 
chivalrous motive on his part. All my warning 
was forgotten in an instant. 

“I did not want to tell you this,” he said, in 
a tone that seemed to disclaim any merit to 
gratitude. 

“But you wronged me, Lynn,” she said gently — 
“ you wronged me, to think I might wish to break 


A SECOND-RATE DECEIVER. 


181 


the engagement because you were less rich than 
you expected to be when you made me an 
offer.” 

She held out her hand to him frankly, and he 
took it. If he had been wise enough to tell her all 
that had passed between him and Awdrey, she would 
have been his without doubt. In return for an open 
avowal, she would have swept aside my warning and 
all prudential considerations, put the best construc- 
tion on his motives, and scorned to entertain any 
suspicion of mercenary motives which might be sug- 
gested by his conduct. Now was the time for him 
to spring up and put his arms around her; but he 
hung back, the dolt ! With that perverse idea of a 
girl’s mental inferiority, he thought he had told her 
enough. Possibly he was annoyed in being forced 
to abandon his own way of winning her, and act 
upon Awdrey's more generous and manly advice. 
Perhaps, believing that she was anxious to get him, 
he thought he might treat her with a little in- 
difference as a kind of punishment for her previous 
coolness. There is no knowing the extent of pitiful 
meanness a heartless man is not capable of. Any- 
how, he sat there in silence, waiting for her to make 


182 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


a further advance. And that, giving her time for 
reflection, saved her. 

“ Are you greatly in debt, Lynn ? ” she asked, after 
a little consideration. 

“ Oh, not a great deal,” he replied, carelessly ; 
“ a few hundreds.” 

“ How many hundreds do you think ? ” 

“Ten or a dozen,” he said, with an unpleasant 
glance that seemed to say, “ That’s not your business.” 

But Miss Dalrymple evidently thought it was her 
business. How could she help an uneasy feeling 
stealing upon her, when the fool made no attempt 
to prevent it. 

“ And how do you propose to pay your debts ? ” 
she asked, not at all frightened by his forbidding 
look. 

“ That will be all right. The fellows won’t press 
for payment. They know their only chance is to 
wait till I get a bit straight.” 

“How do you mean to get straight, as you call 
it ? ” she asked, smiling. 

“Hang it all, Gertie,” he exclaimed petulantly, 
“let’s drop this subject. I came to make love to you, 
not to talk about money.” 


A SECOND-RATE DECEIVER. 


183 


“Yes; but the two subjects seem to have become 
so involved that we can hardly mention one without 
talking about the other. The best way is to detach 
the pleasant from the unpleasant subject, and that 
would be most readily done by settling the money 
question at once — don't you think so ? ” 

“ Oh, well, if we must talk about that sort of 
thing, I should ask you to let me have a little money 
to square my accounts, while I look about for some- 
thing that would enable me, in time, to pay you back 
— though I don’t think there ought to be any debt 
or credit account between man and wife.” 

“ Nor I,” replied she gravely. “ If I marry you, all 
that I have will be yours, and I should be very 
unhappy if I thought it necessary to question how 
you disposed of it. That is why we ought to settle 
the subject beforehand.” 

“ That’s all right. Of course, whatever I do with 
the money will be for our common good. So that 
settles the thing,” he said, rising from his chair. 

“Not altogether. To be quite explicit, I really do 
not think I can let you have ten or twelve hundred 
pounds. I am not certain how much I have, but 
I fear it is considerably less than that.” 

“ There is no hurry, my dear child, none whatever! 

13 


184 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


said Lynn, approaching and laying his hand on her 
shoulder with the soothing and somewhat contemp- 
tuous manner he might have adopted towards a restive 
horse ; “ eight — ten months will be soon enough to 
settle my creditors’ little bills. Ill manage them ! ” 

“ But in ten months I may be as far as ever from 
being able to let you have the sum you need ; in the 
meantime you must be incurring fresh debts unless 
you have some definite means of earning money.” 

He looked at her questioningly, rather taken 
aback by this announcement. 

“ But you have heard of the arrangement Awdrey 
is going to make ? ” he said. 

“ Yes ; Mr. Keene spoke to me about it yesterday 
— he told me he had full instructions to make terms 
with me respecting a perpetual engagement.” 

“You did not refuse his offer, did you?” asked 
Lynn, with a terrible suspicion that Miss Dalrymple 
might be Quixotic enough for such an act of 
abnegation. 

“ No ; the terms were very generous, and I 
accepted.” 

“Then where’s the difficulty? You surely don’t 
think of living up to your income ? ” 

“ Perhaps not ; but I don’t think my economies 


A SECOND-RATE DECEIVER. 


185 


will amount to much more than fifty pounds by 
the end of the year.” 

He stepped back and sank into his seat, looking 
at her in speechless surprise. They were both under 
a misconception. She knew nothing about the two 
thousand a year Awdrey intended settling on her, 
and reckoned solely upon the one hundred I had 
agreed to pay; he knew nothing about the one 
hundred, and reckoned upon the two thousand. And 
the cool assertion that she should live pretty close up 
to that two thousand a year was enough to take his 
breath away. His look of astonishment perplexed 
Nurse Gertrude more than it amused her at the 
moment ; for the gravity of the situation overpowered 
her perception of the ridiculous. 

“ I don’t understand,” he said at length ; “ do you 
really mean that you think of living at the rate of 
two thousand a year ? ” 

“Certainly not. One hundred a year is what Mr. 
Keene agreed to pay me, and those are the terms 

» 

I have accepted.” 

“ But Awdrey told me that he intended settling 
the whole of the interest on the money left by 
Flexmore on you for taking the care of the child off 
his hands, and quite right that he should.” 


186 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“I know nothing at all about that. Mr. Keene 
proposed a salary that I thought reasonable ; if he 
had proposed more, I think I should have declined 
to accept it.” 

“ I must have an explanation with Awdrey at once. 
There seems to be a little shuffling here. I must 
know the facts of the case.” 

“ Mr. Keene is in the next room,” suggested Miss 
Dalrymple. 

Lynn replied with an expression in regard to 
me which it is unnecessary to repeat, for I think 
I have shown enough to prove that he was a 
blackguard, and quitted the room, to “ go and 
have it out with Awdrey,” in a manner so devoid- 
of feeling, or even common courtsey, that it must 
at once have destroyed any faith in his sincerity 
that poor Gertrude cherished. 

I have often asked myself since how it was that 
this young man so abruptly abandoned the course 
of hypocrisy he had hitherto followed so patiently 
and consistently — why he did not at least keep 
up a semblance of honesty until he was convinced 
that there was nothing to be got by it ? I can only 
explain it by believing that he lacked the stamina 
which distinguishes a good from a second-rate player 


A SECOND BATE DECEIVER. 


187 


at chess. Your second-rate player opens the game 
well, but in the critical finish, exalted by success into 



“LYNN QUITTED THE ROOM TO 4 GO AND HAVE IT OUT WITH AWDREY.’ 


an undue appreciation of his own ability, or his 
adversary’s inability, he abandons careful tactics, and 


188 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE 


makes rash and reckless moves that inevitably lead 
to his own min. 

Poor Gertrude ! it was some time after the door 
closed upon Mr. Lynn Yeames before she came from 
the room where he left her, and then, despite the 
cheerful air she assumed, I perceived that she had 
been crying. 

Here, again, I have wondered what she cried 
for. Had she not every reason to be pleased that 
she had found out the man’s real character before 
marriage rather than after it ? Was not scorn of 
such a base fellow enough to dry in its source the 
regretful tears that would have sprung in losing a 
lover ? I should have thought so. But nothing puts 
on so many unlooked-for aspects as human nature. 
One cannot reason upon the movement of human 
hearts as if they were made of wheels, mathematically 
arranged, to produce from a given impulse a certain 
and undeviating result. So I say again, poor 
Gertrude ! for she was weak as well as strong. 

Had she really loved Lynn ? or was she only inter- 
ested in him from a belief that her influence had 
ennobled him ? I cannot say ; all I know is that she 
wept in realizing that he was neither noble nor lovable. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


DR. AWDREY PERSEVERES. 



fTIHERE is a wire- 
blind to the win- 
dow of my office facing 
the street, so that as 
I sit at my table I 
can see what is going 

on out of doors. This 

% 

is very convenient to 
a country lawyer who 
sees his clients pull 
up at his door, and 
is thus prepared to 
meet them. The morning after my last visit to 
Flexmore House I heard the crunching of wheels in 


190 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


the ice of the gutter, and, glancing through the afore- 
said blind, I caught sight of Dr. Avvdrey. The old gig 
had been mended, and he had bought a new nag of 
the same sober sort as the last. “ Ha, ha ! ” thought 
I, “he’s come to settle about the two thousand a year 
that Nurse Gertrude is to receive. ,, 

It must be remembered that the particulars of 
the interview between Lynn Yearn es and Miss 
Dalrymple, which I have set down in the last 
chapter, had not then come to my knowledge. 

Dr. Awdrey came in clapping his hands, for, I 
remember, it was bitterly cold ; and, pulling off one 
of his knitted gloves, he gave me his hand. His nose 
was red, but his fine kindly eyes sparkled brightly ; 
and he had in his face that expression of virile 
energy, and vigour and triumph, which one may see 
in a man when he has broken the ice to take his 
morning plunge. But there are difficulties to over- 
come in carrying out a healthy, moral principle that 
call for just as much nerve and courage as diving 
through half an inch of ice ; and it has often struck 
me that if a man braved as much personal inconveni- 
ence and discomfort in the service of humanity, as he 
will endure for the mere sake of self-glorification, it 


DR. AWDREY PERSEVERES. 


191 


would be infinitely better for himself and his fellow 
creatures. It was a moral plunge of this kind that 
animated and beautified the doctor’s face that morning 
I felt sure. 

He sat down before the fire warming his hands 
and talking about the weather for some minutes; 
then, after a pause, he said — “ Are there any farms to 
let about here, Keene, do you know ? ” 

“ Yes,” said I ; “ you may take your pick of them 
for ten miles round.” 

“ Is that a fact ? Do you mean what you say ? ” 
“ Certainly. There’s not a farmer who would not 
give up if he could find any one to take the land off 
his hands.” 

“ How’s that ? ” 

“ They’re losing money.” 

“ Why ? Is the rent too high ? ” 

“Land was never so cheap before. Rents have 
gone down fifty per cent.” 

“ Then why don’t farming pay ? ” 

“ I’ll tell you, ” said I ; “ it’s because your farmer 
is too genteel to work, and has to pay another for 
doing what he ought to do himself — that’s one 


reason.' 


192 


A EEC OILING VENGEANCE. 


“ If a man were not too genteel to work, if he put 
his heart and soul into it, if he went into it as a man 
goes into battle, staking his life on winning, how 
then ? ” 

“ He would make it pay — I’d stake my reputation 
on it ! ” I exclaimed. “ You know nothing about 
farming, doctor ; but with your dogged perseverance 
and a certain amount of intelligence that you would 
bring to bear on it, even you might make it pay ; and 
I’ll guarantee that you would make more by it than 
by your medical practice.” 

“ I am very glad to hear you think so, ” said he 
cheerfully. 

“ Why ? Do you think of taking a farm ? ” I asked 
hopefully. 

He nodded. I was never better pleased in my life, 
and I told him so. 

“ It will make a new man of you, ’’said I. “ It will 
give you new life. You’ll see that there’s something 
better than physic — though I suppose if any one with 
the toothache sends for you in the middle of the 
night you’ll turn out.” 

“I dare say I shall,” he replied, with a twinkle 
in his eye that perplexed me. 


DR. AWDREY PERSEVERES. 


193 


However 1 was too pleased to tliink what was in 
his mind just then. 

“Now, there’s Thibald’s farm,” said I. “You 
could get that at fifteen shillings an acre, I know.” 

“ Too far off. How about Captain Ranger’s farm 
— do you think he wants to give up?” 

“ I know he does. He must. Can’t go on losing 
eight hundred a year.” 

“ Eight hundred a year ! That’s a good deal to 
lose,” he said, drawing a long face. 

“ Why does he lose it ? Because he never goes 
out of the house except to hunt or shoot ; because he 
is lounging about his billiard-room instead of looking 
after his accounts when he’s at home ; because his 
wife keeps four servants ; because he pays Evans 
three hundred a year for robbing him ; and because 
he’s no more a farmer than you are a lawyer. It’s 
famous land — the best in the country. I’ll get the 
place, house and all for you for a pound an acre. 
You’re bound to make it pay ; it’s the very thing 
for you.” 

He smiled at my enthusiasm — a pleasant smile it 
was too. 

“ Besides,” I went on, “ look what a lot of good a 


194 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


man like yon could do there — half the vagabonds in 
Coneyford come from the squalid cottages on that 
estate — you would make -them decent, and put the 
poor wretches in the way of living honestly and 
happily. That alone ought to tempt you, if I know 
you at all.” 

I saw it did tempt him. He looked in the fire 
meditatively, and it was easy to guess how his 
large heart and big mind were occupied. I continued 
to praise the farm and lay its advantages before 
him, for I had a strong motive in wishing him to 
take it. It adjoined the Dingle ; from the windows 
of the farmhouse he would look over the pleasant 
meadows to Miss Dairy mple’s cottage. 

“ Well,” said he, rising, “ I shall go over and look 
at the farm this afternoon perhaps. Do you know if 
Captain Ranger is at home ? ” 

“ He is, and will be only too glad to see you. I’ll 
send a note up to him this morning. Leave all the 
negotiations to me. I shall manage that better than 
you could.” 

We shook hands and parted ; but as soon as he 
was gone a misgiving seized me. That misgiving 
was verified in the afternoon when I caught sight of 


DR. AW DREY PERSEVERES. 


195 


him jogging along in the gig towards Captain 
Rangers with Lynn Yeames on the seat beside 
him. 

It was for Lynn, not for himself, he wanted the 
farm. I saw now why he had pitched upon that 
particular one; he also was aware that it was side 
by side with the Dingle. If anything could promote 
their union, it was this propinquity ; for here, he 
must have reflected, the young man would be urged 
to do his best, that she might see he had the good 
qualities — the energy, the resolution which he pre- 
tended to, and she but let me get on with my 

narrative. 

In the evening I went over to the doctor’s house 
to see if I could pick up any news, and by a happy 
chance he was at home. He welcomed me heartily, 
gave me a cigar — a good one, you may be sure — and 
when he had lit his own, he said — “ I have seen 
the captain’s farm. It will do admirably. I will get 
you to arrange terms with him as early as possible.” 

I nodded gloomily. My want of enthusiasm now, 
contrasting with my warmth in the morning, was 
too noticeable to escape him. Like all good fellows, 
he was keenly alive to the humorous aspect of 


196 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


things, and I saw that twinkle in his eye again as he 
turned to poke the fire. 

“I suppose there will be no difficulty about the 
money,” he said. 

“No,” I replied, with a grunt. 

“When do you think he will turn out — the earliest 
date ? ” 

“March 24th.” 

“ Not before ? ” 

“No,” I said; “and a good job too,” I added, 
speaking to myself. 

“You don’t seem so eager about it as you were, 
Keene,” he said, with a smile. 

“ No ; I was idiot enough to think you were going 
to take it for yourself. ” 

“And you have found out that the future tenant 
is to be ” 

“ Lynn Yeames ? It’s too good for him,” said I, 
angrily. 

“ We shall see.” 

“Yes, we shall see him lose money — that’s a 
comfort.” 

“He can’t lose more than eight hundred a 
year.” 


DR. A WDREY PERSEVERES. 


197 


<c I’m not so sure about that. Who’s to pay his 
losses ? ” 

“I am.” 

“ I thought so,” I growled. 

“I see no better way of executing Flexmore’s 
wishes. If you were not so terribly prejudiced, I 
would look to you for help in the matter.” 

Nothing annoys me so much as to be accused of 
prejudice. It’s bad enough to be told of the faults 
one has ; but to be fathered with the very vice you 
pride yourself on being free from is exasperating. 
I dashed my cigar in the fire, and half turned my 
back on the doctor. 

“ I’m not clever at this kind of thing — I’m clumsy,” 
said he, taking no notice of my irritation. “ I feel 
the need of counsel.” 

“ Well, let me hear what you’ve got to say,” said 
I, turning round, with a resolve to be as impartial 
in my dealings with Yeames as if he were unknown 
to me. 

“ I have no right to any of this money virtually,” 
he said. 

“I won’t admit that, to begin with,” I replied. 
“He willed the money to you, and signed his will 


198 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


when he was in health, and had the ability to 
reason the matter out: the will he did not sign 
was decided upon when he was sick and unable to 
reason upon it.” 

“You will admit that in either case he intended 
this money to go to the man Miss Dairy mple should 
marry ? ” I assented to this proposition, and he con- 
tinued : “ It is no longer a question whether I shall 
marry her — that is settled for ever.” 

“ But it is a question whether Lynn will marry her, 
and that is not settled for ever.” 

“ They will marry,” he said, emphatically ; “ the 
only thing that separates them is this miserable 
question of money. I thought it might be arranged 
by giving the money to Miss Dalrymple ; but, from 
what she said yesterday to Lynn, it is doubtful if 
she will accept it.” 

“I don’t believe she will accept it, and come to 
that I don’t see why she should. Her feelings are 
just as fine as yours, and she has no more right to 
the money than — according to your own notions 
— you have.” 

“ That is the mistake I made, and it has increased 
the difficulty. Lynn frankly admits that he has be- 


DR. AWDREY PERSEVERES. 


199 


haved badly to Miss Dalrymple under the irritation 
of this wretched money question, and declares 
that he can never dare to stand in her pres- 
ence until he has redeemed his character” 

I was heartily glad to hear this, and I said 
so. 

“ It struck me in the night,” he continued, “ that 
Lynn, with his love of the country, his physical 
strength and vigour, could do something with a farm. 
I feel sure that he only needs occupation to develop 
his better qualities, and make a capital good fellow of 
him. It would steady him, Keene; he has told me 
over and over again that he needs an object in life 
to strive for. We all must have that, or live a trivial 
and contemptible existence. And striving to attain 
that object will just give him the steadfastness of 
character which he seems to lack at present — and no 
wonder. As you pointed out this morning, there are 
lots of capabilities for an earnest and sharp fellow- 
in the captain’s farm, and I sincerely believe that 
as he works on he will rise in his own esteem, until 
he feels that he may once more address himself 
to Miss Dalrymple. And do you think she will 

refuse him when she sees how he has strengthened 
14 


200 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


his character by working heart and soul for her 
sake ? ” 

“ Well, if he will only work heart and soul for his 
own sake, it’s as much as I can expect of him,” said 
I. “ Let him begin with that ; we shall see about the 
rest. You have spoken to him on this subject ? ” 

“Yes: we went together to look at the farm this 
afternoon. He is delighted with it, is confident of 
success, and eager to begin.” 

I was not surprised to hear this. Every one thinks 
he has the wit to make a farm pay by just riding 
about on a cob and giving orders ; and to be a 
“gentleman farmer” is the desire of a good many 
lazy young gentlemen — especially when there’s 
good shooting in the neighbourhood, and a com- 
fortable house, with an excellent billiard-table 
in it. 

“Is he sufficiently confident in himself to work 
it on his own responsibility, or will he work it at 
your risk ? ” I added. 

“Oh, of course I shall take the risk — he has no 
money — he is in debt indeed.” 

“ You did not promise any given sum ? ” 

“ No ; I left that to be arranged with you. That 


DR. AWDREY PERSEVERES. 


201 


is the subject on which I want advice. I did not 
wish to make a second muddle.” 

I smiled at the possibility of Lynn refusing the 
money if it had been offered him, but said nothing. 
It was a difficult 'question how to dispose of the 
money in dealing with a rascal on the one hand* 
and two people with such particularly sensitive and 
fine feelings on the other ; however, after turning it 
over in my mind for some minutes, I began to see 
my way to a safe arrangement. 

“If you are still resolved on parting with your 
money, I think I see how it may be done without 
too much risk, ,, said I. “We will start with the 
idea that when Flexmore House is sold, the Dingle 
cottage paid for, and everything squared up, you 
have two thousand a year to dispose of for nine years 
from this date. Half of that must be put away as a 
reserve fund. Out of the other half you must pay 
Miss Dairy mple’s salary and the expenses of Laure 
and the cottage — say, roughly, four hundred a year. 
That leaves six hundred to meet the losses on the 
farm and pay interest on the capital invested on 
going in. If Yeames makes farming pay, so much 
the better for him ; he can pocket the profit, and 


202 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


the six hundred can he added to the reserve 
fund.” 

“ And what is to be done with the reserve fund ? 99 

“ I’m coming to that. At the end of nine years, 
when Miss Dalrymple ceases to be Laure’s guardian 
the reserve sum shall be drawn out and paid over in 
a lump to Miss Dalrymple if she is single (whether 
she likes it or not — she will be older and wiser 
then, I dare say), or to her husband if she is married. 
Here is an inducement for Yearn es to develop his 
fine qualities, to work hard and win Miss Dalrymple, 
for then he will come in for the whole amount arising 
from the bequest. Now, there’s an arrangement 
advantageous enough for Yeames in all conscience. 
It does not benefit you one penny piece, and so ought 
to be acceptable to you; and it carries out Flex- 
more’s last wishes to a tittle.” 

“ That seems a capital arrangement,” said Awdrey 
cheerfully. “ I should think Yeames would be pleased 
with it.” 

“ He ought to be,” said I. But I was very doubtful 
whether he would be ; for a greedy man will not 
be satisfied with ten thousand a year, if he thinks 
he may by hook or by crook get twenty. 


DR. AWDREY PERSEVERES. 


203 


However, he had the grace to express entire 
satisfaction with the arrangement when Awdrey ex- 
plained it to him, and the doctor bade me conclude 
negotiations with Captain Ranger as quickly as 
possible. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


A SPOKE IN MR. YEAMES’S WHEEL. 

milE following week Miss Dalrymple moved into her 
new home with all her household ; and one morn 
ing, when I had been to settle affairs with Captain 
Ranger, I walked across the meadow, climbed over the 
fence that separated them from the Dingle pad- 
dock, and made my way up to the cottage. I found 
everything in its place, and the whole house as neat 
and comfortable as if the tenants had been there 
a year. 

It seemed to me that I had never seen Nurse 
Gertrude to such advantage. Black was certainly 
becoming to her, and her dress was, to my eyes, 
the perfection of grace and elegance, giving fulness 
to her figure which, as I have said before, was, in 
my opinion, a trifle too slight. Her carriage was never 


A SPOKE IN MR. YE AMES'S WHEEL. 205 


wanting in dignity, but I thought she bore herself 
with the air of one conscious of being mistress of 
the house. Yet there was no stiffness or formality 



I CLIMBED OVER THE FENCE THAT SEPARATED THEM FROM THE DINGLE PADDOCK. ” 


in her manner, little Laure herself didn’t welcome 
me with sweeter smiles. 

Bright fires were burning, and a cat and a dog 


206 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


shared the hearthrug amicably; the sun streamed 
through on to the new carpet, there were flowers and 
berries here and there, an open work table, besides 
many signs of modern taste and refinement, which, 
though rather out of keeping with an old-fashioned 
bachelor’s notions, nevertheless impressed me favour- 
ably. We old ones have had our day, and the young 
must have theirs ; and though we cling to the things 
of our youth we must submit to their being pushed 
aside, for every change is in the direction of the 
higher and better, though we may fail to see it. 

“Yes,” said I, looking about me, “everything is 
bright and charming. It is prettier than the old 
house. That was comfortable for old folks, but this 
is in harmony with your young faces.” 

Then I sat down by the fire, and we fell to talking 
about the neighbours. I learnt that they had already 
received visitors, though it was scarcely time to expect 
them, and was glad to hear this, not only because it 
would be good for Laure to find companions of her 
own age, but for Miss Dalrymple’s sake also. Mixing 
among people who must appreciate her excellent 
qualities, it was ten to one that some decent young 
fellow would fall in love with her, and good might 


A SPOKE IN MR. YE AMES'S WHEEL. 207 


come of it. One thing I had made up my mind 
upon: if Dr. Awdrey wouldn’t have her, Mr. Lynn 
Yeames shouldn’t. Although the running at present 
looked favourable for Lynn, the race was not won 
yet by many a length, and I had a strong belief 
that he would be found nowhere when the marriage 
bell rang. 

“And who else has called upon you, Miss Dai- 
ry mple ? ” I asked, when Laure left the room. 
“Has Mr. Yeames paid you another visit since we 
last met ? ” 

I wondered whether the little frown with which 
she replied in the negative implied that she was hurt 
by his neglect, or vexed at the thought of his call- 
ing upon her again. 

“ I was told that he intends to redeem his character 
before he again presents himself,” said I. 

“I am very glad to hear it,” she replied, taking 
up her work. 

u However, you will be able to see him, for he is 
to be a near neighbour.” I fancied that she did not 
look particularly pleased at this intimation. “He 
is going to live in the house over there, and from 
this window you will be able to see him, if you get 


208 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


up early, mowing his fields, following his team, throw- 
ing heart and soul and money into the noble endeav- 
our to become a worthy member of society and a 
model farmer.” 

She laid her work in her lap, and, looking at me 
incredulously, said — “ But I understood that Mr. 
Yeames was in difficulties.” 

“ What does that matter ? He has found a friend 
who’s a bigger fool than he in some respects, willing 
to pay his debts, and spend a thousand a year be- 
sides to make a worthy gentleman of him. Do you 
think he will succeed?” 

She did not reply to my question, but sat absorbed 
in thought. Watching her face keenly, I thought 
there was an expression of tender sadness in it 
Was she mourning in her heart for the face of 
one whom no effort could raise up? Or was she 
grieving to think of that friend’s disappointment 
when he should find that all he had done was of 
no avail ? 

“ The friend is Dr. Awdrey ? ” said Miss Dalrymple 
after we had sat in silence for some moments. 

“ Yes,” I replied ; “ that is not difficult to discover, 
for I believe there’s not another man in the whole 


A SPOKE IN MR. YE AMEN S WHEEL. 209 


world who would beggar himself for others as he 
will.” 

She sat with idle hands and musing eyes still 
and silent, as one sits at times awed by the beauty 
of a starry night. 

“And I have not told you all that he will do to 
make Yeames a gentleman — he will give him two 
thousand a year when he wins you. If that does 
not encourage him to make himself a fit subject 
for matrimony, I don’t know what will.” 

“He must have a great respect for Mr. Yeames,” 
•she said. 

“A very strong belief in his latent goodness 
undoubtedly,” I said. 

“ Yet he has not seen a great deal of him,” she 
objected. 

“ I should think that the less one knows of Mr 
Yeames, the higher one would esteem him.” 

“Yet Dr. Awdrey must have seen as much of him 
as you have, Mr. Keene,” she replied, with a malicious 
twinkle ; for she too shared the common notion that 
I am a man subject to prejudice, despite her ordinary 
good sense. 

“ Dr. Awdrey is not a lawyer,” I retorted ; “ and 


210 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


let me say this in his defence, he is as simple and 
confiding as a girl. In that category he is not 
the only one who has had a great respect for Mr. 
Yeames.” 

“ How am I to reply to that thrust ? ” she asked, 
with a smile. 

“By telling me that if Dr. Awdrey had as inti- 
mate an acquaintance with Mr. Yeames as you 
have his respect would have evaporated.” 

“ But still his faith in latent good qualities might 
exist,” said she. 

“I know his love would remain unaltered; and 
while he thinks Yeames capable of goodness, and 
you capable of loving him, he will endeavour to 
bring about your marriage/’ 

“ His love ? ” she repeated, questioningly, with a 
little emphasis. 

“ His love,” I said again ; “ * and greater love hath 
no man than this — that he lay down his life for 
his friend.’” 

“ Do you think he loves Mr. Yeames to such an 
extent as that ? ” 

“ I was not thinking of Mr. Yeames,” said I ; “he 
is not the only friend concerned : it is a friend better 


A SPOKE IN MR. YE AMES'S WHEEL. 211 


known, more highly prized in his heart, for whom 
that brave man would lay down his life.” 

The malicious smile provoked by our little pas- 
sage of arms faded from her lips, the colour left her 
cheek, her dark eyes deepened as she looked at me 
with intense earnestness, to read in my face what I 
had yet left untold. 

I believe she realized at that moment for the 
first time that Dr. Awdrey loved her with a love 
that is deeper than friendship. 

“If I have not put a considerably long spoke in 
Mr. Lynn’s wheel, I’m a Dutchman,” said I to my- 
self, as I went away from Dingle Cottage. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


FIRST CHARGE AGAINST DR. AWDRET. 


A S time went on however my faith in that spoke 
diminished. 

Lynn Yeames had the sagacity to leave Coney ford, 
and keep out of sight, knowing that he could do 
nothing to re-establish his character until he should 
be in the farm where he was to work such wonders, 
or finding the bad weather that succeeded the frost 
intolerable, or society dull, or for some other reason 
that may be clearer later on. 

I have said that he had made himself very popular 
at Coneyford with his charities, his reckless riding, 
his agreeable manners (to those he liked, or those 
he wished to like him) and his assumption of bluff, 
outspoken honesty. People were inclined to think 


FIRST CHARGE AGAINST DR. A WDREY. 213 


even better of him in his absence than when he 
was amongst them, remembering the pleasant side 
of his character, and forgetting the little slips which 
occasionally may have awakened suspicion. He was 
spoken of as a fine type of muscular Christianity. 
Miss Dalrymple was constantly with these people, and 
as it was generally understood that a tacit engage- 
ment existed between her and Yeames, they thought 
to please her by talking about him, and sounding his 
praises. Then that dear, stupid old doctor, whenever 
he -got a letter from Lynn, must needs show it to 
her and dilate on the fine prospect extending before a 
young fellow with such manly feeling and high aim. 

I was at Dingle Cottage several times when he 
called, and it seemed to me he only came there to talk 
about Lynn, or discuss the things he might do when he 
took possession of Captain Rangers farm — evidently 
seeking to interest her in the improvements that 
might be made on the estate with a view to her 
sharing in Lynn’s occupation when they should be 
near neighbours. Miss Dalrymple could not listen to 
all these direct or indirect praises of Lynn without 
being influenced in his favour. But how could I undo 
the mischief ? What was the good of my firing shot 


214 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


after shot at a wary enemy who kept just out of 
range ? No one supported me — not a soul ! I stood 
there alone in my dislike and mistrust. People laughed 
in my face if I said anything against him, and behind 
my hack said I was a spiteful, venomous, rancorous, 
prejudiced old man ; I know they did. 

It seemed to me that all the world was mad ; the 
only evidence of sanity that I could discover was a 
dawning appreciation of Dr. Awdrey’s merit. 

You may be sure that I did not hide his light 
under a bushel : I let every one know the disposi- 
tion he was making of the money that was legally 
his. People signified that it was no more than right, 
considering that it was by the merest accident 
(culpable delay on my part, some hinted) that the 
second will giving the trust money to Yeames was 
not signed ; but they admitted that Awdrey had 
behaved well in the matter. His professional services 
were called for by several of the good families, and 
indeed it looked as if his luck were turning at last, 
and he might before long get a decent living out 
of his practice. 

But this did not reconcile me to the course of 
events. A few hundreds a year more or less could 


FIRST CHARGE AGAINST DR. AW DREY. 215 


make no difference to his happiness ; but the impend- 
ing blow that threatened to shatter his peace of 
mind for ever looked day by day more likely to 
fall. Lynn would undoubtedly work well at his farm 
at the beginning — the very novelty and romance of 
the thing would please him ; and then, with every- 
body holding up hands in wonder and astonishment 
at his prodigious virtue and “ manliness,” what was 
to save poor Miss Dalrymple from falling into the 
trap and marrying him ? What avail would be my 
single protest, now become a subject of public ridicule ? 
Nothing. They would marry : in six months he would 
tire of her and farming ; in nine months he would 
neglect, her ; in a year she would break her heart, 
and the doctor would be the most miserable man 
on the face of the earth. 

It was the end of the second week in March, 
and people were speculating on the day when Lynn 
Yeames would make his appearance — for he was 
to take possession of the farm on quarter day — • 
when something occurred which upset everything 

nothing less than a moral cataclysm altering the 

entire aspect of affairs. 

Coming home that particular afternoon I found 
15 


216 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


a visitor in my office who had been waiting there 
three parts of an hour to see me. 

lie was a little pudgy man, with a short throat, 
a puffy face, and eyes as like a pig’s as ever I saw. 
He breathed with difficulty, and gasped before each 
sentence, and in the middle also if it was a long 
one. He had not much hair ; what there was of it 
had a dirty, sandy tint ; his whiskers were hardly dis- 
tinguishable, they were so thinly planted, and so like 
his complexion. He was dressed in a tightly-buttoned 
frock coat that formed deep ridges in his waist,, 
and seemed to increase the difficulty of breathing. 
In one hand he held his hat, in the other a pair of 
gloves, and both rested on his knees, which, by 
reason of their shortness and pudginess, were widely 
separated. 

“ Afternoon, Mr. Keene ; afternoon, sir,” he gasped, 
turning his little blue eyes in the corner before 
he could screw himself up on his legs to face me. 
“Come to talk with you on a matter of business. 
My name’s Bax — Smithson Bax ; ” with this he sank 
down on his chair and gasped again. 

“Not the pleasure of knowing you, Mr. Bax,” said 
I, sitting down in front of him. 


FIRST CHARGE AGAINST DR. AWDREY. 217 


“ Thought you might have heard of me from Lynn 
Yeames, or (gasp) mother, Mrs. Yeames. I am 
— friend of the family.” 

“ A professional friend ? ” I asked, for I detected 
the look of a pettifogger in him. 

“ You may call me — professional friend if you like 
— not a lawyer exactly — know something about it.” 
He gave me a glance that was not to be mistaken, 
and continued : “ To begin with, you must understand 
that I — acting on behalf of the family — Lynn Yeames 
nothing at all to do with it — better keep out of 
it.” 

“He does not wish to take the responsibility of 
anything you do ? ” 

“ That’s it. Too generous — too careless of his own 
interests — altogether too — ■” he gasped, and filled up 
the break with a wave of his gloves. 

“I understand his character perfectly, Mr. Bax; 
let us come to the point.” 

“We’ll go straight at it — begin in the middle — 
save breath. Hr. Awdrey is a scoundrel ! ” 

Lawyer as I am, this fairly took me back. 

“Hr. Awdrey,” he continued, “is nothing more 
nor less” here a gasp and a short wave of his 


218 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


hat over his knee to fill up the break — “biggest 
hypocrite, scoundrel, and rascal that ever imposed 
— credulous humanity ! ” 

“Be good enough to show me how you arrive at 
this conclusion,” said I. 

“ Here goes ! Flexmore’s will. He knew of the 
conditions in the first one ? ” 

“He did” 

“He knew also the conditions in the second?” 

“ He did.” 

“ He knew that if that were not signed, he would 
come into two thousand a year ? ” 

“ He did.” 

“ Good. Tell — please, Mr. Keene, why that second 
will was not signed ? ” 

“I failed to deliver it in time,” said I. He 
nodded. 

“ Why did you fail— deliver in time ? ” 

“ I was thrown out of a trap : that and the 
fog ” 

He waved his gloves interrupting me, and, with 
a look intended to pierce, gasped — “Thrown 
out of trap ! How ? Answer me that, if you 
please ! ” 


FIRST CHARGE AGAINST DR. AWDREY. 219 


“ By a rope stretched from one side of the road 
to the other.” 

“Good. I can produce a witness to prove that 
he was engaged by Dr. Awdrey to stretch that rope 
and throw you over ! ” 

With that he dashed his gloves inside his hat, 
planted his open hand on his knee, bunched up his 
thick lips, and looked at me out of his little blue 
eyes, as much as to say, “ There you are ; what do 
you think of that ? ” 

To tell the truth, I felt as if the floor had suddenly 
sunk away from under my feet: but I was too 
old to let it be seen, and said as calmly as I could — 
“ Well, sir, go on. You have not come here simply 
to make that statement, I presume.” 

tl That’s one charge ; but mark me ! ” he said, 
pausing to put his finger to the side of his fat nose, 
where he kept it as he continued — “ Mark me ! it 
isn’t the only one — more than one witness to he 
produced. There’s another charge — charge more 
serious than stretching rope cross road — upsetting 
you.” 

“And pray what charge is that, Mr. Bax?” I 
asked, with pretended indifference. 


220 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


“A criminal charge. We reserve it — respect for 
Mr. Lynn Yeames’ feelings.” 

“A charge of this kind is likely to do him more 
injury than any one else,” said I. 

“ Quite right to take the high horse Mr. Keene. 
We know all about that he closed one of his little 
eyes, and looked exceedingly deep as he said this. 
“However, here’s the fact — we can throw will into 
chancery, and ruin Dr. Awdrey, if we make facts 
public. Lynn Yeames does not wish to proceed. 
Mrs. Yeames does. So do I. To meet Lynn’s 
wishes we will abandon proceedings” — once more 
he laid his stubby finger on his stubby nose — “ on 
condition” 

“ Tell me straight out what you mean by that,” 
I said. 

“ I mean — our side abandons proceedings — written 
guarantee and all that sort of thing; you on your 
side pay over interest on money left in trust for Miss 
Flexmore. Awdrey professes he has no right to money 
— give it up to Lynn, who has. Loses nothing — avoids 
scandal — saves reputation. There you are.” 

“ Have you anything more to add to this proposi- 
tion ? ” I asked. 


FIRST CHARGE AGAINST DR. AWDREY. 221 


“ Nothing, except this — stay proceedings for a week 
— time for you to arrange with Awdrey, and give us 
decision. One week from to-day — you understand ? ” 
“ Perfectly well ; there is no necessity to keep you 
waiting a week for a decision; you shall have it at 
once. On behalf of my client and myself, I refuse 
to have anything more to say to you. Let me 
say in conclusion, you confounded, pettifogging 
rascal,” said I, rising and giving free vent to my 
anger, “ that if you could prove your criminal charge 
against Dr. Awdrey, I am the last person in the 
world who would compound a felony, but the first 
who would take measures to punish the man who 
did. Get out of my house ! ” 

He got up on his little legs, gasping and stammer- 
ing, dropped his gloves out of his hat, got purple in 
the face in picking them up, gasped and stammered 
again ; but quickly made his way through the open 
door with his small blue eyes in the corner, for all 
the world like a pig bolting past a driver. Mrs. 
Lynn’s description of me, or her sons, for I had 
no faith in his standing out, had evidently been 
not flattering, and he had thought to find in me a 
shuffling scoundrel of his own kidney. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


WHICH IS THE JUDAS? 


IHIS event gave me no little anxiety at first, but 



it wore off when I came to consider it calmly. 
I could not believe in the man’s statement respect- 
ing a criminal charge in reserve. It was not likely 
he would keep back the stronger inducement in 
leading to a compromise. As for his witness to prove 
that Awdrey had been instrumental to my delay, 
that was nothing; he could get as many witnesses 
of that kind as he chose at a pound a head. No : 
it seemed to me nothing but a mere attempt at 
extortion, got up, probably, by Yeames, his mother, 
and Bax, who thought, very likely, that I should be 
rascal enough to stand in with them. It was easily 
understandable that Mr. Lynn Yeames would prefer 
the money all in his own hands in preference to 


WHICH IS THE JUDAS ? 


223 


taking a possible six hundred a year out of it, with 
a not too probable addition should he succeed in 
marrying Miss Dalrymple. But he was not fool 
enough to put all his eggs in one basket, he was 
cunning enough to disclaim any hand in the con- 
spiracy, in order to profit by Awdrey’s generosity, 
should the attempt fail. But only think what a 
heartless, thankless, worthless vagabond he must 
have been to join in a plot against the man who 
was sacrificing everything to make him happy. 

I flattered myself that I had shown Bax the folly 
of his "proceedings,” and that I should neither see 
nor hear any more of him or his criminal charges. 
And this belief was strengthened when two days 
later Lynn Yeames appeared in Coney ford, and his 
mother returned to her cottage. 

He went the very morning of his arrival to Dr. 
Awdrey, and in the afternoon I saw them going along 
the High Street together, Lynn with his arm linked 
in Awdrey’s. They were going towards the farm 
to see the alterations and improvements that had 
occurred to the doctor in the other’s absence. I felt sure 
then that the intimidation scheme was abandoned. 

I had said nothing about it to Awdrey, knowing 



(( 


I SAW THEM GOING ALONG THE HIGH STREET TOGETHER.” 


WHICH IS THE JUDAS? 


225 


that he would take it only as another evidence of 
Lynns loyalty that he did not share in his mothers 
virulence. 

But the next day I was alarmed to hear that 
Bax was staying with Mrs. Yeames 1 

I began then to fear that all was not so well as 
I had imagined, but it perplexed me to decide what 
his next move was to be. 

It was evident that Lynn was silent about Bax 
and his mother; every day he was to be seen with 
Dr. Awdrey, who showed no sign of discomfort. 
Nothing occurred for several days ; but on Friday, the 
20th March, Miss Dairy mple called upon me. She 
was as pale as a ghost. Her hand trembled in mine. 

“ Oh, Mr. Keene ! ” she exclaimed, “ what is the 
meaning of these rumours ? ” 

“ Sit down, my dear,” said I, guessing what she 
meant. “ Sit down ; now tell me what it is you have 
heard.” 

She was greatly agitated. 

“I don’t know how to tell you,” she said, 
hurriedly ; “ it is so impossible— so dreadful.” 

“ Tell me the worst. Don’t hurry. Now then 
what is it?” 


226 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“They say that Dr. Awdrey prevented you from 
arriving at the house in time for Mr. Flexmore to 
sign his will. A man has confessed to being employed 
by him.” 

“I have heard something about that. Have you 
heard anything else ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, yes ! They say that the medicine he 

gave me to adminster to Mr. Flexmore was ” she 

hesitated a moment, and dropping her voice so that 
it was scarcely audible, said — “ poisoned ! ” 

I started. This then was the criminal charge Bax 
had hinted at. 

“ Who told you this ? ” I asked, when I had over- 
come the first dash of astonishment. 

“Mrs. Caseby came to tell me. She thought I 
ought to know.” 

There never was a bad piece of news that 
some kind friend did not feel she ought to let you 
know it. 

“Everybody is talking about it, she says. What 
can be done ? ” 

“My dear,” said I, “no one can attach any blame 
to you in the matter.” 

“Oh, I am not thinking about myself!” she 


WHICH IS THE JUDAS ? 


227 


exclaimed, “but poor Dr. Awdrey. Of course it is 
untrue : but how is he to disprove it ? ” 

“ By taking no notice of it. That is the course I 
should advise.” 

She shook her head. 

“ It is not enough to treat such a charge with con- 
tempt,” said she. “ It must be made quite clear that 
he is innocent. People are against him; they must 
be made to see that they wrong him.” 

“ He will not see the necessity,” said I. “No doubt 
every one is against him. They will say that his 
endeavour to make Lynn Yeames a decent member 
of society was simply a blind — a means of making a 
friend of the man he fears — a bribe to stay him from 
making a claim that he can never establish ” 

“ They do say that. Mrs. Caseby herself urged the 
very same argument.” 

“ No doubt ; and her opinion will be shared by all 
the rest of our small society. They will signify that 
he can send in his bill and discontinue his attendance 
— these people who have just begun to take him up.” 

“ They have. The Langdons, Heathereys — all who 
were loud in his praise yesterday are against him 
to-day. Ail, all ! ” she said, clasping her hands. 


228 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


"Good” said I; “and Dr. Awdrey won’t care that 
(snapping my finger) for them or their opinion. He 
has too much pride to accept so mean a challenge. 
He has done without these fine folks, and he can do 
without them. Conscious of his own innocence, he 
will see no necessity to study the opinions of people 
who doubt him ; and, to tell you the truth, I see no 
necessity either.” 

“ But I do,” she said, with a vigour that impressed 
and pleased me at the same time. 

“ Will you tell me why ? ” I asked. 

She looked me straight in the face without 
blenching, and replied — “ Yes. Because with 

public opinion against him ” she paused 

an instant, and then with yet greater firmness 
pursued — “ he will never ask me to be his 
wife.” 

I caught hold of her hand and kissed it ; I should 
have done the same thing had she been queen or 
beggar maid, for a nature like that commands 
homage. 

“That’s enough, you dear, good, clear-sighted 
young woman,” said I. “Awdrey’s innocence shall 
be proved as sure as I am a lawyer.” 



230 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


The colour had mounted now into her face, she 
bent her head, she moved her lips as if to speak, 
then checked herself. I interpreted these signs of 
girlish modesty. 

" I know what is in your mind,” said I. “ You do 
not wish Awdrey to know what you have told me. 
Be under no apprehension : a lawyer knows how to 
keep a secret when it suits him. Leave the matter 
in my hands, and by to-morrow morning you shall 
have news of some kind — good news I feel pretty sure.” 

I lost no time in seeing Dr. Awdrey ; on my way 
to his house I settled how to act. 

“ Well, Awdrey,” said I when we met, “ how is the 
world using you ? ” 

“Pretty much the same as usual — only more so,” 
he said with a laugh ; and then in a tone of perplexity 
he continued — “I can’t quite make it out — I have 
received three letters to-day asking for my account, 
and all three have employed me only about a month. 
I suppose it’s a polite way of telling me that I am 
not wanted any more.” 

“ That’s it,” said I ; “ and the reason is that you are 
accused of throwing me out of a gig, and poisoning 
poor old Fie xm ore.” 


WHICH IS THU JUDAS ? 


231 


“ What ! ” he exclaimed, knitting his brows in 
astonishment. 

“It’s a fact. The rumour is circulating. You’ll 
have none but your paupers to doctor at the end of 
the week.” 

“ I’m glad of it,” said he, “ if the rest will listen 
to such nonsense as that.” 

“We shall have to take measures to disprove the 
charge, doctor,” said I. 

He laughed boisterously. 

“Not I,” said he — “not though all the world 
believes this.” 

“Yes you will, my dear fellow,” I said quietly. 
“ All the world believes you poisoned the drug Miss 
Dalrymple had to administer.” 

“ That’s another thing,” said he, with sudden 
earnestness. “You must take the necessary steps 
at once for having an autopsy.” 

“ A post-mortem examination : that will settle 
the question at once.” 

“ Then don’t lose any time about it,” said he. 
‘Poor Nurse Gertrude!” he added tenderly, 
thinking doubtless of the affront he had received 

being offered to her. Then in a tone of vexa- 
16 


232 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


tion he asked : “ How long have you known this, 
Keene?” 

“I heard something about it more than a week 
ago.” 

“ Why didn’t you tell me at once ? ” 

“ Because I thought it merely a scheme to extort 
money. A man named Bax spoke about it. Have 
you heard the name ? ” 

“No. Who is he?” 

“A rascal who made the modest demand for two 
thousand a year to hush up the matter. You have 
not heard his name ? ” 

“ No — how should I ? ” 

“Through Lynn Yeames. Bax tells me he is a 
friend of the family.” 

“Lynn is no friend of his, I am certain,” said 
the doctor stoutly. 

“ Well, Bax is acting with the mother, and has 
been staying at the cottage with the pair of ’em. 
How’s that ? ” 

“I will go and see Lynn at once. I am sure he 
is not party to this plot.” 

And he went off at once to find Lynn. And not 
long afterwards I caught sight of the pair in the High 


WHICH IS THE JUDAS? 


233 


Street, Lynn with his arm linked in the doctors, 
and a look in his face that seemed to bid people 
observe that he still believed in Awdrey’s innocence. 

While I was looking after them, a colleague clapped 
me on the shoulder, and said in a low voice, nodding 
towards the two — 

“Which is the Judas?” 

“There can be no doubt about that,” I replied, 
“unless Judas be too good a name for Lynn 
Yeames,” 

“ I am not so sure about that, Keene. I don’t like 
Awdrey’s quiet, long-suffering, martyrish manner. 
He’s a clever man — ten times cleverer than Yeames 
— clever enough to make a big venture. If I had to 
judge without evidence, I should acquit Yeames and 
hang Awdrey. And I believe if you would only clear 
your mind of prejudice ” 

I would not wait to hear more of such fustian. I 
had no patience. 

In due course I made a formal application for the 
post-mortem examination of Flexmore’s remains. To 
my astonishment I learnt that the inquiry had been 
already demanded and accorded : the examination 
was to be made at once. 


234 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“Lynn assures me, and I believe him,” said Dr. 
Awdrey when we next met, “that he has been op- 
posed to his mother’s action from the very begin- 
ning. He could not with any delicacy tell me of her 
proceedings. He himself insisted on Bax quitting his 
mother’s house.” 

I have no time or patience to dwell on these 

trifles : I must at once come to the fact that utterly 

unmanned me when I heard it. 

The examination resulted in this : enough a r- 

© 

senic was found in Flexmore’s body to have killed 
a dozen men ! 


CHAPTER XX. 


GETTING EVIDENCE. 

mHE news spread 
like a plague : 
within twenty-four 
hours every one had it, 
ma n, woman, and child, 
without distinction of 
rank or station. Every 
one went about open- 
mouthed to find some 
one to give the news 
to. A dozen persons 
said to me — “Have you heard the result of the 
examination ? Dr. Awdrey did murder Flexmore.” 

“ Then why is he at large ? ” I asked. “ Why has 
no warrant for his arrest been issued ? ” 



236 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


They could only shrug their shoulders ; but I could 
explain the matter to them — Flexmore was not 
murdered at all. The arsenic was found in his mouth, 
it had not touched the digestive apparatus, and for 
this reason : it had been administered after the life 
bad left his body. This was the report made by the 
authorized doctors who made the examination. 

Upon this report no one could be accused of 
murder legally, nor at the present juncture could a 
charge of attempt to murder be instituted. That the 
poison had not been given in the form of a potion, 
such as Miss Dalrymple had been charged by Dr. 
Awdrey to administer, was clear from the fact that 
it was found in the form of a powder, and must have 
been dropped into my old friend’s mouth when his 
jaw dropped after death. Still, it had clearly been 
given with a view to destroying life should he recover 
his vital faculties; and it was equally evident to the 
majority of people that Awdrey, who knew the 
contents of the will to be signed, alone was pre- 
sumably desirous of preventing a return to life, for 
only a very small minority knew that Lynn Yeames 
also had a strong reason for making death sure at 
that time. 


GETTING EVIDENCE. 


237 


Now, though there was no evidence to commit 
Awdrey for attempt to murder, circumstances were 
sufficiently suspicious to enable the Yeames party to 
contest the will. But I had still stronger reasons 
than that for getting at the truth of the matter, and 
fixing the guilt on the guilty. Even the paupers 
would refuse to take medicine from the hand of a 
reputed murderer; but over and above all other 
considerations was the peace and happiness of my 
friends. Miss Dalrymple’s words rung out clearly in 
my memory, “ he will not ask me to be his wife.” 

I went to work at once, and determined to take 
no rest until I had secured the safety of poor Awdrey 
and Nurse Gertrude. My clerk was a sharp, depend- 
able young fellow. 

“ Now, Mr. Jones,” said I, “ I am going to put you 
on your mettle.” 

“ Glad of it, Mr. Keene,” he replied eagerly. “ Is 
it this poisoning case, sir ? ” 

“Yes, it is. Bax, Yeames’s agent, says they can 
produce the man who threw me out of the gig, and 
prove that he was engaged to do it by Dr. Awdrey.” 

“ I understand, sir. I know Mr. Bax by sight, and 
Mr. Yeames too.” 


238 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


u Yes ; well, now, you must find their witness. In 
all probability that trick was unpremeditated. It 
was suggested to him by circumstances, by a chance 
meeting with the fellow who stretched that rope. 
Who might that be? It was just such a day as a 
poacher would like for wiring hares. Yeames had 
been doing a good deal of shooting. A poacher can 
be more useful than a keeper to a gentleman on the 
look-out for game. A man of that kind was the very 
one to suit his purpose. And a man who would do a 
job of that kind could be easily bribed to swear he 
was employed by Dr. Awdrey. That man must be 
found. Now, then, how are you going about it ? ” 

“ First of all,” said Jones, after a little thought, 
“ I’ll find out if any one has been spending money 
freely in the beer shops up at Bagley ; or whether 
any one is away — because I should think Bax would 
get him out of sight. But he must have a wife or 
relatives about, and the neighbours are sure to be 
jealous. May I tempt them to speak with a little 
cash, sir ? ” 

“ As much as you need. Don’t spare it. If Bax 
has given twenty pounds to get a lie, we will give 
fifty to have the truth. I see you know your 


GETTING EVIDENCE. 


239 


business — go at it at once. If you bring that man 
here in a week, you shall have a month’s holiday 
and a rise of ten pounds. There’s money — now 
off you go.” 

He was hardly out of the house before Miss Dal- 
rymple came in. 

“ What are you going to do for Dr. Awdrey ? ” was 
the first question she asked. 

“ I am going to prove his innocence, please God,” 
I said. 

“ Tell me how,” she said, in a tone of entreaty, 
laying her hand on my arm. 

“ Well, that is difficult to say. There’s so much 
to do that I scarcely know where to begin.” 

“ If there is much to do, let me help. Tell me 
what I may do.” 

“ That is still more difficult,” I said, scratching my 
ear. “ This sort of work is scarcely suited to you, I 
am afraid.” 

“ Why not ? I have a woman’s wit, and I don’t, 
mind what I do. I carit rest idle. Only tell me 
what difficulty there is to overcome, and trust my 
intelligence.” 

u There’s one thing you can attempt, at. any rate, 


240 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


I said; “the rascal employed by Yearn es, Bax 
signified that they had a witness in reserve to prove 
a criminal charge against Awdrey. That means they 
have got hold of some one to swear to his adminis- 
tering the arsenic. Now that some one must be of 
this place. If you can find out who it is, and let me 
know, I may persuade that witness to stand on the 
side of truth.” 

“ I understand you. I will try,” she said, but with 
a wandering look, as though she were seeking the 
means to penetrate such a mystery. 

“ It is an almost impossible task, I know,” said I ; 
“ but your sex can talk so fast, and get to the point 
so adroitly, that I fancy you have as much chance of 
succeeding as I have. Now I must go off and see 
Awdrey.” 

“ I should like to go with you,” she said timidly, 
yet with earnestness. 

I showed her that it would be better not to go at 
this moment. 

“ Tell him that — that I sympathize with him, Mr. 
Keene,” she said tenderly. 

“You may be sure of that,” said I, pressing her 
hand. 


GETTING EVIDENCE. 


241 


We parted at the door, she going one way, I the 
other. 

“ Awdrey,” said I, when I met him, “ Miss Dal- 
rymple sympathizes with you.” 

“ I am certain of that,” he replied. 

“Yes; and you may be sure of something else. 
If we get this affair settled rightly, you may be 
the happiest man in the world, or it will be your 
own fault.” 

“ What,” said he eagerly, “ do you think her feeling 
is deeper than sympathy ? ” 

“ I am sure of it, that’s more ! ” I exclaimed. 

“ Notwithstanding the doubt that hangs over me — 
the feeling against me ? ” 

“ There’s no doubt in that generous soul,” I said ; 
“ and as for the feeling against you, it’s just the thing 
to endear you to her. Did you ever know the woman 
who would not side with a man in misfortune, who 
wouldn’t love him the dearer for his having none to 
love him but herself ? Here, let’s get to work.” 

I pulled out my note-hook and, pointing my 
pencil, said— “ Now, you have to tax your memory 
to the utmost. Your happiness depends as much 
upon a clear recollection as anything. I must have 


242 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


an account of every minute of the day that 
Fiexmore died.” 

Then carefully we went over the events of that 
day to the minutest particular, from the hour of 
his rising until he went again to bed. 

What I learnt will appear duly in its place. 

It was a long job, necessitating much discussion 
and verification, but we stuck at it until it was done, 
then we ate and drank and made as merry as we could. 
It was no effort to Awdrey ; I had never seen him in 
such high spirits. It was as if ten years of hard work 
and disappointment had been taken off his shoulders. 
Only now and then his face assumed its old gravity 
as the thought perhaps occurred to him that if he 
failed to prove his innocence he must slip back again 
into the Slough of Despond. 

It was past five when I got back to my office. To 
my utter astonishment I found Miss Dalrymple 
waiting there for me, and with her a woman. 

Miss Dalrymple rose and met me with forced 
calm, but I could see that her face was flushed 
with triumph, and her eyes were sparkling 
with excitement. 

“ I have brought Mrs. Bates to see you, said she,” 





I HAVE BROUGHT MRS. BATES TO SEE YOU, SAID SHE. 





244 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“or rather Mrs. Bates asked to see you. She 
desires to make a full communication of all she 
knows.” 

I bowed to Mrs. Bates, who sat rigidly in her chair. 
She was a middle-aged person with a face like a 
hatchet, and a body like the handle of it. A hard, 
cold, long woman of the scraggy kind, and just dull 
enough to think herself sharp. 

“ I’m glad to see you, Mrs. Bates/’ said I, turning 
up the lamp. “ Why, surely I have met you before ? ” 

“ I were in Dr. Hawdreys hemploy,” she replied. 

I shall not trouble to reproduce all her super- 
fluous h’s, but he it understood she aspirated every 
vowel. 

“ To be sure. Now I remember you. So you have 
something to tell me, have you ? ” 

“ I wish to conceal nothink, for I have notliink to 
conceal,” she said. 

“Mrs. Bates has received a visit from Mr. Bax,” 
said Miss Dalrymple, with a feminine suavity that 
I could not too much admire; “and she was 
equally candid and outspoken with him. Were you 
not?” 

“I were miss. I do not wish to sell myself, 


GETTING EVIDENCE 


245 


though untold gold were offered. I am an honest 
woman, and no one has ever righteously accused 
me otherways.” 

" Surely Mr. Bax has not been attempting to bribe 
you, ma’am ?” I said, in a tone of indignation. “ No 
one who knows you would try to tamper with your 
integrity by suggesting payment for information. 
To offer a recompense — a suitable recompense — 
for services rendered would be a different thing, 
but before — tut, tut, tut!” 

I knew the woman. She was one of those who 
are continually fancying themselves suspected ; if they 
find a lost halfpenny or a stray stick of sealing-wax 
they will think it is laid out to “ tempt them,” and I 
will add that women of this kind are the most to 
be suspected. 

" I told Mr. Bax why I left Dr. Awdrey, as I have 
told others,” said Mrs. Bates ; “ and am not ashamed 
of owning to it before the Queen herself. And nothing 
shall make me leave Coneyford, where I am 
not ashamed to show my face any day in the 
week.” 

“ Of course he would have been very glad to get 
you out of the way as if you were a criminal ? ” 


246 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


“ But I were not going. Dr. Awdrey cannot deny 
that I gave him warning.” 

“ And why did you give him warning ? ” I asked, 
seeing that the point lay there. 

“ Because he unrighteously accused me of meddling 
with his bottles, which I will take my oath I never 
touched. The bottle of harsenic layed there marked 
on the floor. I will not say that Mr. Bax is not right 
in saying that the doctor let it slip from his guilty 
hand himself, and wished to put it on me in case 
of inquiries. I know that he ast me over and over 
again to stop after I gave warning, and offered a rise 
in my celery, sayin’ it must be the cat as knocked 
the bottle down. But I see the trap that was laid 
for me, and would not stay, which is a mercy, I’m 
s ire, or I might now be in the condemned cell.” 

She rambled on a long while to the same purpose, 
while I made notes of certain facts, and from time to 
time exasperated her to further rambling ; but when 
she had repeated all her facts half a dozen times, and 
I saw there was no more to be got out of her, I rose 
and said — “ That is enough for the present, ma’am ; 
but I have no doubt you will repeat all you have 
said to-day if you are asked to do so ” 


GETTING EVIDENCE. 


247 


She glorified her own steadfastness and sense of 
rectitude, and so went away. 

Miss Dalrymple had sunk into a chair, and met my 
gaze with a look of dejection. She was evidently 
disappointed that I had not persuaded Mrs. Bates 
from her adverse opinion. 

“ I am afraid my witness will do us more harm 
than good. This broken bottle adds to the weight 
of evidence against Dr. Awdrey.” 

“ My dear girl,” said I, taking her hand between 
both of mine, “that woman’s evidence is worth a 
Jew’s eye to us. You have done us an incalculable 
benefit in bringing her here.” 


17 


CHAPTER XXI. 


THE INQUIRY. 

T WAS not astonished the next morning when 
my housekeeper brought me Mr. Bax’s card. 

“ Introduce Mr. Bax at once,” said I, in a voice 
that he might hear. 

Mr. Bax puffed his way into the office like an 
unsound locomotive, and I gave him my hand 
with a smile. He winked significantly, and stretched 
out his legs when he seated himself, feeling that he 
was master of the situation. 

“Not quite so much virtuous indignation about 
Keene, eh ? ” 

“ Tempora mutantur , you know, Mr. Bax ; et nos 
mutamur in illis” said I blandly. There’s nothing 
flatters an ignorant man so pleasantly as to imply 
a belief in his learning. 


THE INQUIRY. 


249 


“Just so; I know all about that,” he said. 
“ Well, now then, what are we going to do about 
this affair?” 

“ Of course we are innocent,” I said. 

“You’ve got to prove that.” 

“ Undoubtedly.” 

“Well, is your client willing to hand over the 
trust-money, or — going to fight it ? ” 

“ I should not advise him to go to law.” 

“ No,” he grunted, with a nod. “ Very wise, 
too.” 

“A lawsuit would drain the estate; at the same 
time we have the money, and possession is nine points 
of the law ” 

“ The greater reason — knock the matter off at once. 
You propose compromise, I suppose, eh ? Good job 
for Awdrey — got a generous man to deal with. Any 
one else but Lynn would have the lot. Awdrey 
wants a third or something like that, eh ? ” 

“ Dr. Awdrey wants as much as he can get — reason- 
ably. But, before I can suggest any compromise on 
his part, we must prove his innocence. You under- 
stand my position. I cannot run the risk of being 
accused of collusion.” 


250 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“Prove his innocence — how do you propose to do 
that ? ” 

“ I suggest that we hold a meeting in this office 
of all the parties concerned, and invite the 
attendance of some well-known person — a justice 
of the peace say — to give the inquiry publicity, 
and make a thorough examination of the affair from 
beginning to end. I shall try to prove my client’s 
innocence to the satisfaction of the magistrate. 
If I fail, so much the worse for us ; if I succeed, 
I shall be very willing to listen to any terms you 
may propose.” 

“And reject ’em,” grunted Bax; and then, look- 
ing extremely sly, he pursued, “I’m as deep as 
you, Keene. You don’t catch me in a trap. If you 
get the magistrate and public opinion on your side, 
you’ll be as saucy as you were the other day.” 

“ I shan’t be a fool, Mr. Bax. You can withhold 
your decision as to your final course until you have 
made terms with me : it is always open to you after 
this examination — which, as I have shown you, is but 
a proper safeguard of my own reputation — to contest 
the will, and take public proceedings. All I demand 
is a full examination, and some public recognition 


THE INQUIRY. 


251 


of Dr. Awdrey’s innocence, before I attempt any 
pecuniary accommodation with you.” 

“ We withhold our decision after the examination 
until terms are made with you,” mused Bax, 
with his finger on his nose and his eye on the 
ceiling. “Well, I don’t see much objection to the 
meeting in that case. But the poison in the man’s 
mouth — how are you going to explain that?” 

“I may be able to prove,” said I, after a show of 
hesitation, “that Flexmore feared untimely burial 
and left instructions for means to be taken after 
death to prevent resuscitation. I may be able to 
produce his written wish to that effect.” 

“ By George, that’s a clever notion ! ” exclaimed Bax 
gasping approval. “ Was it the doctor’s idea, or yours?” 

“Oh, let me impress upon you at once,” said 
I, “ that the doctor pleads not guilty to everything, 
and will take no measures whatever to clear himself 
from suspicion.” 

“ He does very well — follow your instructions — 
leave his case in such able hands — compliments, 
Keene.” He waved his gloves towards me. “Of 
course you don’t want us to produce our witnesses — 
keep them out of the way.” 


252 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ On the contrary, I shall call Mrs. Bates.” 

“ Oh, you’ve found her out, eh ? Hard nut she 
is. Any way, you wont want the fellows Awdrey 
engaged — fellows who tripped you up, I mean.” 

“ We won’t bother ourselves about them,” 
said I. 

He rose. 

“ Well, I’ll talk it over with the Yeameses, and 
if they don’t object — no reason why we shouldn’t 
fall in with your plan.” 

We shook hands and parted with mutual hypocrisy, 
and I got my hat in order to seek the magistrate 
whom I had fixed on in my thoughts for the service I 
needed. I felt certain the examination would be 
agreed to ; for, though it might be a ticklish business 
for Yeames, it was not half so hazardous as opening 
a lawsuit. He had not the money for such a venture, 
to begin with, and I knew that Bax would lead him to 
suppose the inquiry in my office was a mere farce 
to make me clear in the opinion of my clients; 
and that, however it ended, he could be no worse 
offi than in the beginning. 

By the time Bax was out of sight, I went off to the 
Manor House to see Sir Boland Firkin, J.P. 


TEE INQUIRY. 


253 


Sir Roland was one of the best known and most 
popular men in the county; and he deserved to 
be, for he was a thoroughly kind-hearted and 
generous old fellow, willing at all times to render 
a service, and not too stupid to despise advice. 
He had a reputation for sapience in his magisterial 
capacity, due to his abiding implicitly by the 
direction of his clerk, and his decisions on questions 
of justice were regarded as final. It was only 
natural that he should to a certain degree share 
the general opinion with regard to his legal acu- 
men, and I knew very well that the old gentleman 
itched to dispense with counsel of the court clerk 
and prove, to himself at least, that he could form 
a sound decision and follow it up with necessary 
action independently. 

I laid the case before him, and asked if he would 
consent to preside at an informal inquiry should the 
Yeames side accept our proposal of going thoroughly 
into the truth of what may be called the Flexmore 
poisoning case. He gave me his promise to attend 
without hesitation, and approved highly of the course 
I had taken for making the inquiry public, promising 
that reparation should be made to Awdrey on the part 


254 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


of his friends and himself should it be found that the 
charge against him was unjust. 

The next day Bax called upon me to say that 
Lynn and his mother agreed to attend the inquiry, 
and I fixed it for the following afternoon at three 
o’clock ; for, as luck would have it, I had received 
just half an hour before a telegram from my clerk, 
saying that he had found two men who acknowledged 
to stretching the rope, and had agreed to tell the 
whole truth concerning the affair. The despatch came 
from London, and I reckoned upon these witnesses 
arriving by the morning train which reaches Coney- 
ford at 10.30. 

In the evening I w*ent to my friends, and I also 
called upon Mrs. Bates, binding them all to be in my 
office at the hour fixed •, then I went home and spent 
the best part of the night in drawing up the questions 
to be put, for I determined that Sir Boland Firkin 
should be the chief actor in the inquiry, not only 
because it would please the old gentleman, but be- 
cause the question would wear less of an ex parte 
aspect coming from him. 

The next morning I had my office table pushed up 
in a corner, and a long dining-table brought in covered 


THE INQUIRY. 


255 


with green baize ; all my ink-pots were brought into 
requisition and a sheet of paper laid before each chair, 
and the regulation water-bottle and tumbler placed at 
the head of the table for the president to dip into if 
the proceedings grew dry. 

One thing vexed me. My clerk did not arrive with 
the witnesses by the 10.30 train ; however a telegram 
came to say that they would travel by the next down 
train, which reaches Coney ford at 2.15. 

At 2 p.m. I had lunched and dressed, and was 
looking at my watch anxiously. 


CHAPTER XXH. 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


R. AWDREY and Miss Dalrymple were the first 



^ to arrive : they came together — Awdrey with 
a bright and cheerful smile on his face, and perfectly 
calm ; Miss Dalrymple showing symptoms of nervous- 


ness, but staunch and true for all that. 


Next came Sir Roland Firkin; we had a private 
chat in my dining-room, and I put the list of ques- 
tions in his hand, instructing him as tenderly as I 
could how to conduct the inquiry. He was mightily 
pleased with his own importance. 

Then Mr. Bax and Mrs. Yeames arrived : Mr. Bax 
puffed and gasped, bowing to one and then the other 
with the solemnity of an undertaker; Mrs. Yeames 
passed to her seat, after a low obeisance to Sir Roland, 
without recognizing Dr. Awdrey and Miss Dalrymple, 
except by drawing down her lips and contracting 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


257 


her nostrils as she might in passing an unsavory 
dustheap. 

As the clock struck three Mrs. Bates, who had been 
waiting outside, gave a single bang at the door and 
was introduced: her courtesy to Sir Roland and her 
rigidity in sitting down, together with her air of con- 
scious virtue, gave her a strong resemblance to Mrs. 
Yeames — for the reason perhaps that their airs 
sprang in both cases from a narrowness and vul- 
garity of mind. 

Lynn Yeames came in two minutes later, panting 
with the haste he had made, and beaming all over 
with that frank, manly, generous smile of his. He 
looked round the room, saw Awdrey standing beside 
Miss Dalrymple, and strode up to him, head erect, 
shoulders back, and his hand out, as if to say before 
us all — “ I do not share this common ill-opinion of 
my old friend.” 

Dr. Awdrey stood perfectly still, and looked 
straight in Lynn’s face without moving a muscle, 
letting him stand there with his extended hand 
untaken. With a sigh and a shrug Lynn dropped 
his hand and turned away. This was a little coup 
de, theatre. 


258 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


Mr. Bax approached the table, put his knuckles 
on it, and, after bowing to Sir Boland Firkin, 
said impressively — “ I was given to understand — 
this was to be an amicable inquiry. The hostile 
attitude of Dr. Awdrey towards my friend, Mr. 
Lynn Yeames ” 

“ You overlook the fact, Mr. Bax,” said I, knuck- 
ling the table on the other side, “ that the onus of 
administering arsenic to Mr. Flexmore falls upon 
one of three people — Dr. Awdrey, Mr. Yeames, and 
Miss Dalrymple. You cannot expect Dr. Awdrey, by 
taking the hand of Mr. Yeames, to imply his belief 
in the guilt of Miss Dalrymple.” 

“A verv nice distinction, Mr. Keene/ said Sir 
Boland, “ which I think you, Mr. Yeames, must have 
overlooked.” 

This was one to us. 

“Now we will proceed to business,” said Sir 
Boland, taking the chair at the head of the 
table. 

Mr. Bax, Mrs. Yeames, and Lynn sat on the left- 
hand side of the table ; Miss Dalrymple, Dr. Awdrey 
and I, faced them on the right. Mrs. Bates sat at a 
little distance from the table ; a shorthand clerk I 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


259 


had engaged for this occasion sat at the desk in the 
corner. 

Sir Roland began with a nice little speech of course, 
which included a well-chosen verse from Shakespeare, 
and concluded with an earnest wish that every one 
might be found perfectly innocent of the shocking 
charge which had been brought forward. He then 
poured out a glass of water, took a sip, settled 
his glasses firmly on his nose, and, taking up my 
sheet of questions, said — “ Miss Gertrude Dalrymple, 
you remember the day of Mr. George Flexmore’s 
death ? ” 

“Perfectly well,” she replied. 

“ What hour was it when you first saw him that 
day?” 

“About eight o’clock in the morning.” 

“ Was he alone at that time ? ” 

“No. Dr. Awdrey was sitting beside him.” 

“ He had been watching at Mr. Flexmore’s bedside 
all night, I believe ? ” 

“Yes ; he insisted the previous night on taking my 
place and giving me rest.” 

“ How long did you stay in the room ? ” 

“Only a few minutes — merely the time to learn 


260 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


that he was better. I saw that I had interrupted a 
conversation, and that Mr. Flexmore wished to be 
alone with Dr. Awdrey.” 

“ How long did that conversation continue after 
your departure ?” 

“About half an hour. Dr. Awdrey then called 
me back, and gave me instructions with regard to 
the treatment of Mr. Flexmore and the medicine to 
be given.” 

“ Was the medicine in the form of a liquid or a 
powder ? ” 

“ A liquid. It was a sedative draught, I believe.” 

“ Had you to administer a powder ? ” 

“ No.” 

“Did you see any powder in the room?” 

“ No.” 

“ What happened after Dr. Awdrey’s departure ? ” 

“ Nothing until Mr. Keene arrived. Mr. Flexmore 
then asked me to leave the room, as he had business 
to talk over, and I went down stairs.” 

“ When Mr. Keene left, you returned to the room ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“What hour was that?” 

“About half-past eleven.” 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


261 


“Did any one call soon after?” 

“Yes; Mr. Lynn Yeames — almost immediately 
after.” 

“ Did he see Mr. Flexmore then ? ” 

“No. He saw me, and I told him of the serious 
condition of Mr. Flexmore.” 

“ Did he ask any questions ? ” 

“He was very anxious to learn what Mr. Keene 
had been saying to him. I could give him no satisfac- 
tion on this point, and he went away.” 

“ He was absent some time, and then returned ? ” 
“ Yes ; about half-past one. He came into the 
room and asked me to leave as he had something to 
say to Mr. Flexmore. I hesitated, for Mr. Flexmore 
was less easy, and I warned Mr Yeames that it 
would be dangerous to excite him. He promised 
to be careful, and I withdrew.” 

“ How long were you absent ? ” 

“ Only a few minutes. I heard Mr. Yeames speak- 
ing in a high and angry tone, and I knew that could 
do Mr. Flexmore no good. Mr. Yeames went out 
of the house slamming the door behind him, and I 
found the patient much worse.” 

“You attribute that to the behaviour of Mr 


262 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


Yeames ? ” said Sir Roland, straying from his 
notes. 

Mr. Bax interfered at once : he could not allow 
witness to be led to suppose anything. 

Sir Roland sipped water, and returned to his 
notes. 

“ When did you again see Mr. Yeames ? ” 

"About half-past three.” 

" In what condition was Mr. Flex more then ? ” 

"Dying; he was unconscious when Mr. Yeames 
entered the room.” 

“ What followed ? ” 

"Shortly after Mr. Yeames came in Mr. Flexmore 
died. When I was sure he was no more I left the 
room, taking Miss Flexmore down stairs.” 

"Did Mr. Yeames accompany you?” 

" No ; he remained in the room.” 

" What was he doing when you left him ? ” 

"He was standing at the window, looking out.” 

"Was there anything peculiar in his manner?” 

" He seemed utterly unconscious when I spoke to 
him. I spoke twice, and he made no reply — no 
movement whatever.” 

"What else occurred to your recollection?” 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


263 


“Laure, Miss Flexmore, was overcome with grief. 
While I was attempting to console her, I heard 
Mr. Keene in the hall ; he went up stairs. After 
a little while he came down with Mr. Yeames; 
they both came into the sitting-room where I was 
with Miss Flexmore." 

“ Did Mr. Yeames — er — still seem ill at ease, may 
I ask ? ” said Sir Roland, laying down his paper for 
an instant. 

“I do not think you may ask that,” said Mr. 
Bax. 

Sir Roland bowed, took another sip, and resumed 
questioning from the notes. 

“ How long did Mr. Keene stay with you ? ” 

“About twenty minutes.” 

“Was Mr. Yeames in the room all the 
time?” 

“No; he went out of the room, but not out 
of the house, before Mr. Keene left.” 

“Did anything occur to make him leave the 
room ? ” 

“He seemed to have lost something. He felt 
repeatedly in his pockets, and looked about the 
floor. 


18 


264 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE, 


“Did he continue his search after leaving the 
room ? ” 

“Yes; he had a candle, and looked all up the 
stairs and in the hall.” 

“ Do you know what it was he had lost ? ” 

“A piece of paper. He said there was an im- 
portant memorandum on it, and he offered to 
give the maid half a sovereign if she found it.” 

I glanced at Mr. Yeames, so did Sir Roland, whom 
I touched with my toe under the table. The young 
man was looking at the white paper before him, 
and there was scarcely more colour in his face. He 
looked up in quick dread at the next question. 

“ Was that paper found ? ” 

“No.” 

Mr. Yeames drew a long breath of relief. 

“Have you anything to ask Miss Dalrymple, Mr. 
Keene ? ” 

I replied “No;” and he put the same question 
to Mr. Bax, who equally declined to put any 
questions. 

“I shall now ask you, Mr. Lynn Yeames, to give 
me your attention. You do not dispute the order 
of events as stated by Miss Dalrymple?” 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


265 


“No” 

“When you left Flexmore House, at half-past 
eleven, you rode over to Mr. Keene ? ” 

“Yes” 

“You had seen him leave the house, and were 
^cutely anxious to know what his business there 
was ? ** 

Lynn hesitated a moment, but at a nudge from 
Bax replied : “ Yes.” 

“You had been given to understand that the 
bulk of Mr. Flexmore’s property would be left in 
trust to you ? ” 

“ Yes,” after another nudge. 

“The presence of Mr. Keene led you to think 
that Mr. Flexmore might have altered his dis- 
position ? ” 

Nudge as before, and “Yes.” 

“ On arriving at Mr. Keene’s you were shown into 
• the office, and waited there some time alone ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“ You saw a sheet of foolscap lying on the table ? ” 

A particular snort from Mr. Bax, whereupon 
Yeames replied that he had seen nothing of the 
kind whatever. 


266 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“You are sure of that?” asked Sir Roland. 

“ I 7 will take my oath I saw nothing of the 
kind.” 

“ When you left Flexmore House the second time, 
about half-past one, where did you go ? ” 

“To fetch Dr. Awdrey.” 

“ Dr. Awdrey was not at home, I believe ? ” 
c ‘He was not. I waited for him half an hour, or 
thereabouts.” 

“Where did you wait?” 

“In his private sitting-room.” 

“You know that the consulting-room adjoins 
the sitting-room ? ” 

A nudge — “Yes.” 

“ Did you go in there for any purpose ? ” 

A sniff from Mr. Bax — “No.” 

“After waiting quietly in the sitting-room half 
an hour, you returned to Flexmore House ? ” 
“Yes; I was anxious about Mr. Flexmore’s 
condition.” 

“With respect to the piece of paper you mis- 
laid ; have you any objection to stating what it 
was?” 

‘None; it was a leaf from my note-book, con- 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


267 


taming memoranda respecting horses I had backed 
for a spring meeting.” 

Here Sir Roland again asked if we had any 
questions to ask, and, on receiving a reply in the 
negative, he proceeded to question Mrs. Bates. 

“You were in the service of Dr. Awdrey, I be- 
lieve, at the time of Mr. Flexmore’s death ? ” 

“I were, sir.” 

“ The previous night Dr. Awdrey was absent from 
home ? ” 

“He were, sir. He came in about half-past ten 
or eleven the next morning, I wilJ not swear exact, 
and he ast for breakfast — which tea and a rasher 
of bacon I gave him.” 

“After that he went out?” 

“ He did ; about twelve or half-past, I will not 
swear.” 

“You had tidied up his room in the morning 
as usual ? ” 

“I had ; about seven or half-past. I will 
not ” 

“You are not asked to swear, Mrs. Bates. Now 
in tidying up his room, had you occasion to go 
into the consulting-room ? ” 


268 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


“ I never ventured there, sir ; though I may be 
disbelieved.” 

“ When Mr. Yeames called, you showed him into 
the sitting-room ? ” 

“I did; him being a friend, as I was led to 
believe, of Dr. Hawdrey’s.” 

“During the half hour he was there did you 
hear any particular sound ? *' 

“An ’awker were crying s’rimps ” 

“I mean in the room where — er — Mr. Yeames 
was sitting?” 

“No, sir, I did not; being at my dooties hup 
stairs.” 

“Nothing like the crash of a falling bottle?” 

“Nothink of the kind.” 

“The door communicating with the consulting- 
room was open ? ” 

“ No ; it were closed, though the key turned.” 

“ But the key was in ? ” 

“It were.” 

“There was nothing, in fact, to prevent Mr. 
Yeames strolling in there from curiosity — to 
while away the time that he was waiting for 
Dr. Awdrey?” 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


269 


“Nothink; but I believe Mr. Yeames were too 
much the gentleman to go a-prying and a-peering .” 

She had evidently a gratuity in view, that 
Mrs. Bates. 

“ When did you first hear of a bottle being 
broken ? ” 

“ When Dr. Awdrey came in ; about four o’clock 
or half-past. He asked me if I had done it, and 
I said I had not; and should feel obliged if he 
would find some one else, as I did not like such 
things to be laid to me.” 

“ Did he make any other remark about the con- 
sulting room ? Was anything missing from there ? ’* 

“Yes; he said a prescription was gone.” 

“ Did he describe the prescription ? ” 

“Yes; he said it were written on the bottle 
papers.” 

“ What do you mean by the bottle papers ? ” 

« A pile of square papers, white, as stood on the 
little side counter.” 

“ Can you show me what the papers were like ? ” 

“Exactly like that sheet on the table,” pointing 
to a sheet of thin white paper which I had purposely 
laid on the table near where she was to sit. “ Dr 


270 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


Hawdrey tried to pass it off afterwards,” Mrs. Bates 
volunteered ; “ he said it must have been the shaking 
of carts passing, or the cat, and offered to rise my 
celery if I would stay. But I refused, seem’ it were 
not the first time he had laid temptation in 
my way — giving me half-a-crown to buy a four- 
penny arrand, and not askin’ for the change till 
two days afterwards — which I kept it back to prove 
him.” 

“That is enough. Dr. Awdrey, I shall confine 
my questions to events connected with the latter 
part of the evidence. Tell me, if you please, what 
you know about the broken bottle of arsenic.” 

“It was a blue bottle, labelled in large letters 
‘ Arsenic : poison.’ On going into the consulting- 
room I found it in fragments on the floor, with the 
powder widely scattered.” 

“ How did you account for its being there ? 99 

“I believed that Mrs. Bates had taken it down 
from the shelf on which it stood, and that it had 
slipped from her fingers in putting it back.” 

“ It is false, Dr. Hawdrey ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Bates. 

Mrs. Yeames nodded approval. 

“Hush, Mrs. Bates, if you please. Did it not 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


271 


occur to you, Dr. Awdrey, that the same motive of 
curiosity might have influenced Mr. Yeames while 
he was waiting, and that the accident arose in 
that way ? ” 

“No. It never entered my imagination that he 
would do such a thing. Had it been suggested to 
me I would not have believed it, sharing as I did 
Mrs. Bates’s opinion of his gentlemanly delicacy.” 

“You attributed the accident to accidental cause ? ” 

“ Not entirely. I believed that some one had been 
in the room.” 

“Why?” 

“Because of the missing prescription.” 

“Tell me about this prescription.” 

“It was a prescription, jotted down with a lead 
pencil on the pile of paper referred to, that I intended 
to make up later on.” 

“It is your habit to make notes on this pile of 
paper ? ” 

“It is.” 

“Have you ever been able to trace that missing 
prescription ? ” 

“ No ; I have never discovered any trace of 
it.” 


272 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


Here the note under Sir Roland’s hand ran — 
“Look to me.” Sir Roland looked at me, and 
taking a folded sheet of brown paper from under 
my notes, I opened it, and handing a sheet of the 
bottle paper to Hr. Awdrey, I said — “ Is that the 
prescription, Hr. Awdrey ? ” 

I never saw a man so astonished in my life. 

“ Good heavens, yes ! ” he exclaimed. “ Where 
did you find it?” 

“You will hear presently,” said I, fixing my eyes 
on Lynn Yeames. 

Every one at the table looked at him, seeing my 
eyes so fixed ; and, though he continued to meet our 
gaze, his blanched cheek told the terror he felt. 

I carefully handed the sheet of paper to Sir Roland. 

“ Why, my gracious, what does this mean ? ” he 
asked, looking from one to the other ; then, catching 
a significant glance from me, he took up his notes 
again quietly. “ Mr. Keene,” he said, “ tell me what 
took place on the occasion of Mr. Yearn es’s visit on 
the day of Mr. Flexmore’s death.” 

“ I was taking lunch when he called,” said I, u in 
the next room, before sitting down to make out the 
will in accordance with Mr. Flexmore’s wishes. He 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


273 


had been induced to make the alteration through 
Dr. Awdrey.” 

“Dr. Awdrey wished the will leaving property to 
him to be revoked ?” exclaimed Sir Roland. 

“ He did,” said I ; and I explained Awdrey’s 
reasons, and all about it fully. Then I continued — 
“ In the new will the name of Lynn Yeames was to 
be substituted for Dr. Awdrey’s. I had the draft o£ 
the first will, and intending to copy it after lunch, had 
imprudently left it on the table in this room. Mr. 
Yeames came in here; I was in the next room. 
You see the blind to the half-glazed door. It is 
opaque from this point of view; it is transparent 
from the other side. Standing by the door before 
entering, I saw Lynn Yeames reading the draft of 
Mr. Flexmore’s first will. He was at once led to 
conclude that this was the second will commanded 
by Flexmore.” 

Here Bax protested. 

“ I appeal to you, sir,” said I to Sir Roland, “ to 
say whether my statement is in order or not.” 

“ You are perfectly in order, sir ; go on,” said Sir 
Roland Firkin, highly gratified by this appeal to 
his ruling. 


274 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


I was not in order, but he knew no better. 

“With the belief that I was making out a will 
which would beggar him, he went away, and you can 
see that he had the strongest inducement to delay 
me and prevent Mr. Flexmore signing a second 
will” 

“ Sir Roland Firkin,” gasped Mr. Bax, “ I protest 
most ” 

“ Silence, if you please,” said Sir Roland ; “ I rule 
that Mr. Keene is perfectly in order. Go on, 
sir.” 

“After seeing my old friend lying in his bedroom 
above, dead, I went down stairs with Lynn Yeames, as 
you have heard. There, in a moment of impatience, 
he flicked his handkerchief from his pocket, and in 
doing so shot out a pellet of paper. I put my foot 
on that pellet of paper, and when Yeames left the 
room to look for it I put it in my pocket.” 

“Quite right, too, Mr. Keene; go on,” said Sir 
Roland in great excitement. 

“ I put it away in a drawer where I keep things 
which may at some time be of service, and forgot all 
about it until my suspicion was directed to Yeames 
by the discovery that the very day he lost it he 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


275 


bolted out of England and did not return until 
Mr. Flexmore was buried, and all fear of the poison 
being found out and traced to him was removed. 
Then I recalled to mind the paper pellet — the 
sheet of paper you have now under your hand, 
Sir Roland.” 

“We will not stay here to be insulted!” cried 
Mrs. Yeames, rising ; “ it is scandalous. But we will 
obtain redress.” 

“ I should think so,” gasped Bax. “ Pretty pitfall 
— ’pon my life ! ” 

But at this moment, as all of their party were 
rising, the door opened, and the entry was blocked 
by my clerk with a couple of rascals whom I knew 
well enough by sight. 

“We’re a goin’ Queen’s evidence, guv’nor,” said 
the smartest of the two, with a grin at 
Yeames. 

“Out with it my man, at once,” said I. 

“Well, sir, and gentlemen all, it was like this 
here — me and my mate was going along with a rope 
to do a bit of hauling for Squire Long when we 
tumbled again Mr. Yeames. My mate had suthing 
to say about shooting. Suddenly Mr. Yeames, who 


276 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE . 


hadn’t been listening like, said he’d give us a pound 
if we’d play a lark on you, Mr. Keene ” 



** ‘ WE 14E A-UOIN* QUEEN’S EVIDENCE.’" 


“Sir, said I to Sir Roland, seeing Yeames, his 
mother, and Bax edging towards the door, “on this 


BROUGHT TO BOOK . 


277 


evidence I ask you to commit Lynn Yeames for 
conspiracy.” 

“ Ay, I’ll commit the whole hatch, and you, 
Mrs. Bates, as well. Send for my clerk, and the 
papers.” 

But we could not detain any one of the batch 
while the commitments were being procured, and so 
Lynn, his mother, and Bax got clear off. And, 
thank heaven, we have neither seen nor heard 
anything of them since — which is the best thing 
that could have happened for them and for us. 

# * * * * * 

What is there to add ? Nothing hut what should 
conclude a tale of struggle between right and wrong. 

Dr. Awdrey married Gertrude, and lost no time 
over it — I believe as he took her hand in his, when 
his innocence and perfect freedom was proved, and 
they looked into each other’s eyes dimmed with the 
tear of joy, it was understood between them that 
hand and heart were joined for ever. 

They live with Laure in the pretty cottage on the 
hill. Awdrey gave up his practice and went heart 
and soul into farming, and when he found the land 


278 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


could be worked to pecuniary advantage he bought 
it out, divided it into portions, and let it to the men 
who had laboured upon it — thus making them inde- 
pendent. I feared the scheme would not pay, but it 
has to a marvellous extent, thanks to Awdrey’s wise 
and practical counsel to his tenants. Yet, though he 
has given up practice, there’s not a day in the 
week but some one calls to benefit by his skill in 
medicine. 

Laure is now verging on womanhood, and a good 
many young fellows in Coneyford wedge themselves 
into the circle of acquaintances with which Dr. Awdrey 
and his wife are surrounded for her sake. I have 
my eye on one who I think may be found worthy 
of her hand. Laure pretends, with a blush, that she 
does not want to marry, and would rather stay for 
ever with Gertrude and her children. One fine day 
she will pretend that her heart will break if she 
cannot marry. 

The Awdreys have three boys, and fine sturdy 
fellows they are. 

“They make me feel that I am getting older,” 
said Gertrude. 

“And so much the happier,” I replied. 


BROUGHT TO BOOK. 


279 



more cheerful and bright. It is a treat to see him 

with his boys in the shed lie has fitted up as a 
19 


It seems to me that Awdrey himself is positively 
younger for the lapse of time. I never knew a man 


“IT IS A TREAT TO SEE HIM WITH HIS BOYS.” 



280 


A RECOILING VENGEANCE. 


carpenter’s workshop. Whether he intends putting 
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but it is certain that every one of them will be 
a good carpenter, which is something. But what 
most pleases me is to see him with his wife. 
Sure no young lover, no knight of old, could be 
more chivalrous ; no gentleman of to-day more 
generous ! 


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THE STEEL HAMMER. 

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FOR FIFTEEN YEARS. 

A sequel to “ The Steel Hammer.” By LOUIS ULBACH. 
Number Four of “ Appletons’ Town and Country Library.” 
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appears to be unusually familiar. Cynthia Dallas, the heroine, is & fresh and 
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quetry of her sex to make her almost irresistible, and who affects no drawing-room 
manners, but speaks the homeiv dialect of her rather and neighbors. Some of 
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The Silence of Dean Maitland. 

A NOVEL. 

By MAXWELL GREY. 


OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

“In the romance of the English writer we have that sanity of judgment, of 
thought, of expression, which we are pleased to. consider peculiarly Anglican, 
together with that subtile manifestation of reserve power, that delight in the com- 
mon things of nature and human life, that kindly sympathy and genefous 'insight 
which we" rightly associate with the best work of the author of ‘ Adam Bede.’ . . . 
It was not inconsiderately that ‘ Adain Bede ’ was ‘mentioned, fp.r it is pre-emi- 
nently to this novel of George Eliot’s that ‘ The Silence of Dean Maitland’ bears 
much' affinity. There is nothing that suggests imitation; on ‘the contrary,' there 
are one or two episodes .peculiarly antipathetic to the genius of the great writer in 
question ; but, in the mam, few' readers well acquainted with contemporary fiction 
can fail to recognize, not only the essential general likeness in this book by a new 
writer to such a work as ‘ Adam Bede,’ but also the fact that since the Heath of 
George Eliot no such reputable disciple has proved himself or herself worthy to 
enter into the inheritance of his or her great predecessor’s fame.’’ — The Academy , 
London. 

“ A serious study of character is unfolded by means of a novel entitled ‘ The 
Silence of Dean Maitland,’ in which the anonymous > author has wrought out the 
story of a double crime, and the effects upon the various destinies of two families, 
.and more especially the results upon the development of a soul: that of the man 
who sins. The tale is not essentially that of crime, and there is no attempt at 
mystery, but the interest centers in the super- sensitive conscience and the inher- 
ent preference for good rather than evil which makes Cyril Maitland’s life a long 
torture, and in the moral cowardice and inordinate though exquisitely refined love 
of approbation, that are both the cause and the excuse for his silence.”— Spring- 
field Republican. . 

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town life that has shown marked elements of strength in plot and character-draw- 
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mons in the story, preached under highly dramatic conditions,' are both effective ; 
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sufficient unconventionality to ‘save the book,’ if it had nothing else,” — Independ- 
ent , New York. 

“ The crowning point and climax of the story is ? of course, the description of 
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remarkable situation. This very powerful episode is treated in a masterly v ay. 
: . . We do not hesitate to pronounce this a remarkably good book. . The 
moral and teaching of the story are admirable, and .there is so much that, is power- 
ful and interesting that we promise that it will repay perusal.” — Boston Tost. 

4 “ The story culminates in a scene which is almost unequaled and unexampled 
in fiction.- . . v As a tale of spiritual struggle, as a marvelously graphic and vital 
picture, of the action and reaction of human life, ‘The Silence 'of Dean Maitland’ 
is a book that is destined to an extraordinary recognition and permanent fame in 
literature.” — Boston Traveller. •; 

“ The story is original in impression from the beauty of its treatment, the de- 
tail being effective and fine.” — The Critic , New York. 

12mo, paper cover. Price, 50 cen$s; half bound, 75 cents. 

D. APPLETON & CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK. 












































































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